2009 PC Sales Likely Lousy

It’s nothing we don’t already know: Undermined by the worst recession in 50 years, PC sales are slowing. Drastically.

There will be no double-digit sales gains in 2009. The six consecutive years of rising PC shipments we’ve seen will not be followed by a seventh. Instead, they’re likely to be followed by a decline–the first since 2001. With business and consumer spending falling and economic fundamentals askew, technology research group IDC fears that its last official forecast for 2009 PC sales–four percent growth–is unlikely to hold.

“We’re definitely more pessimistic,” IDC’s Loren Loverde told the Financial Times. “As things sink in, it could easily be in negative territory.”