Nope. Turns out that 2009 PC shipments, which were once thought to be headed for certain disaster, aren’t going to decline at all. They’re going to grow.

By 2.8 percent.

Seems that rising consumer demand for netbooks is boosting unit sales to better-than-expected levels. That said, the market value of those sales is still projected to decline.

“Blame this year’s drop in market value on the unprecedented declines in PC average selling prices (ASPs) we’ve seen this year,” said Gartner (IT) research director George Shiffler. “The rapid decline in PC ASPs reflects a marked shift towards lower price points as customers have looked for ‘good enough’ PCs at the cheapest price, and vendors have tried to spur market growth by catering to ever-lower price points. We expect PC ASP declines to slow as the market recovers, but given the market’s competitive dynamic, we don’t see PC ASPs rising any time soon. As a result, growth in the market value of shipments will significantly lag shipment growth next year and beyond.”

One last point worth noting here. Despite Microsoft’s (MSFT) claims that sales of Windows 7 have been “fantastic,” Gartner says the operating system isn’t likely to have much impact on holiday PC sales. “We just don’t see consumers buying new PCs solely because of Windows 7,” said Shiffler. “We are expecting a modest bump in fourth-quarter consumer demand as vendors promote new Windows 7-based PCs, but the attraction will be the new PCs, not Windows 7.”

According to Shiffler, “The more critical question is, ‘When will businesses make their move to Windows 7, and what will they do about replacements in the interim?’ We don’t see businesses mainstreaming Windows 7 much before the end of 2010. We think many businesses will try to shift replacements to the back end of next year so as to sync their adoption of Windows 7 with their PC refresh. That will put a damper on early 2010 shipments.”

Sony (SNE) lost 26.3 billion yen ($289 million) for the period, considerably narrower than a 40.4 billion yen consensus estimate. Sales and operating revenue for the quarter fell to 1.66 trillion yen from 2.07 trillion yen a year earlier, dragged down by a strong yen, flaccid consumer demand and fierce price competition for videogame consoles and TVs.

Looking ahead, Sony improved the outlook for its fiscal year, saying it expects annual losses of 95 billion yen this year, a slight improvement over its initial estimate of 120 billion yen. Still, the company warned that the all important Christmas shopping period would likely be a weak one. “We are quite cautious in foreseeing end-of-year sales,” Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said during a conference call with analysts. “In the first quarter and second quarter there was an upside in sales, but the critical moment is the Christmas season and we are not too optimistic.”

Analysts had expected AMD to lose 42 cents a share on revenue of $1.26 billion, according to a consensus survey by Thomson Reuters. Instead, the company lost 18 cents a share on revenue of $1.4 billion, which was down from $1.8 billion for the same quarter last year.

Not the sort of blow-out quarter we saw from Intel (INTC) earlier this week, but encouraging news nonetheless. Certainly, AMD’s leadership believes the company is poised for a turnaround. During a conference call to discuss AMD’s (AMD) third-quarter results, CEO Dirk Meyer offered an upbeat outlook for the remainder of 2009 despite the current loss.

“Third quarter consumer PC demand continued to improve from prior periods, with particular strength in notebooks and in China and continued recovery in Europe and in North America,” Meyer said. “And it appears the commercial IT markets are positioned to improve next year….Going forward, we believe we are well positioned to succeed.”

Dragging the company down: A 908 million euro goodwill write-off in the Nokia Siemens Networks venture it co-owns with Siemens (SI). Revenue was 9.8 billion euros, or about $14.6 billion, which was down about 20 percent compared to last year. Worse, smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.

Six points gone in three months? That’s a brutal loss and one that demonstrates just how much pressure the company is seeing from Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM), among others.

“Nokia is launching plenty of new high-end smartphone models, such as the N900 and N97 mini,” Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston told Reuters. “But as yet there is no iPhone killer to drive a major revival in its smartphone volumes. Nokia is still struggling in the U.S. smartphone market, and with competition intensifying in China as well, Nokia’s battles can only get tougher in 2010.”

Still, Nokia (NOK) did have some good news to report. It expects mobile device volumes to increase in the fourth quarter of 2009 and it sees the global handset market shrinking less this year than analysts had feared–seven percent instead of 10 percent.

“It is encouraging to see some signs of recovery in our markets,” Kallasvuo said during a conference call. “But let’s be clear, uncertainty in end-consumer demand remains.”

Dragging the company down: A 908 million euro goodwill write-off in the Nokia Siemens Networks venture it co-owns with Siemens (SI). Revenue was 9.8 billion euros, or about $14.6 billion, which was down about 20 percent compared to last year. Worse, smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.

Six points gone in three months? That’s a brutal loss and one that demonstrates just how much pressure the company is seeing from Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM), among others.

“Nokia is launching plenty of new high-end smartphone models, such as the N900 and N97 mini,” Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston told Reuters. “But as yet there is no iPhone killer to drive a major revival in its smartphone volumes. Nokia is still struggling in the U.S. smartphone market, and with competition intensifying in China as well, Nokia’s battles can only get tougher in 2010.”

Still, Nokia (NOK) did have some good news to report. It expects mobile device volumes to increase in the fourth quarter of 2009 and it sees the global handset market shrinking less this year than analysts had feared–seven percent instead of 10 percent.

“It is encouraging to see some signs of recovery in our markets,” Kallasvuo said during a conference call. “But let’s be clear, uncertainty in end-consumer demand remains.”

Rabid demand for the iPhone has emptied not just the company’s physical retail outlets, but its online store as well. “We continue to see extremely high levels of demand for the iPhone which means it comes in and out of stock very quickly and will be why the Web site hasn’t had any since Monday,” an O2 spokesperson told the Telegraph.

News of the shortage comes just days after O2 rivals Orange and Vodafone both announced plans to carry the iPhone later this year, bringing an end to O2’s exclusivity deal with Apple (AAPL). If Apple is unable to meet consumer demand with just a single U.K. carrier, how will it cope with three?

A reasonable question, but one for which Apple presumably has an answer. Said Forrester (FORR) analyst Mark Mulligan, “I don’t think [Apple] would expand if it couldn’t meet consumer demand, as that would lead to extreme consumer dissatisfaction–which compared to its peers, Apple is usually good at avoiding.”

What the company desperately needs is for the Pre to have an iPhone-like debut. But with consumer demand down and the Palm (PALM) brand lacking the cachet and draw of Apple (APPL), analysts say that will be difficult to achieve. Apple sold 6.1 million iPhones in the first full year after the device’s 2007 launch. Analyst’s put Palm’s shipment of Pres in the first year at 2.6 million. “What the BlackBerry and iPhone did was to be game changers,” Interbrand’s Andy Bateman told Bloomberg. “As a brand, Palm is a little dusty. Coming from behind, it’s going to have to do an awful lot to make up the difference.”

And in more than just brand perception. With its typically south-of-$5 shares trading north of $8 on the promise of the Pre, Palm needs to sell eight million units (total handsets, including the Treo, etc.) simply to justify its current stock price, according to Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt. And that, says McCourt, will require “success beyond Sprint” (S). Yet, we’ve not heard about any further carrier deals. For Palm’s sake, lets hope we do soon. With the company’s sales down by about 70 percent in the last quarter, Apple ramping up to release iPhone OS 3.0 and consumers beaten into submission by the recession, this summer is not the best time to be debuting a device meant to take on the iPhone.

Palm, incidentally, is expected to make some sort of official announcement about something or other later today.

And, of course, it will sooner or later. Certainly, the Semiconductor Industry Association, which provided the sales numbers above, thinks so. Earlier this week, it called on the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the $700 billion financial rescue package before it. “Consumer demand accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy,” said SIA president George Scalise. “A slowdown in sales of a broad range of consumer products such as personal computers, cellphones, and entertainment electronics would have an adverse impact on semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter, which is normally the strongest quarter for the chip industry. The entire supply chain, including our suppliers and customers, will be harmed if access to credit becomes difficult.”

And, of course, it will sooner or later. Certainly, the Semiconductor Industry Association, which provided the sales numbers above, thinks so. Earlier this week, it called on the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the $700 billion financial rescue package before it. “Consumer demand accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy,” said SIA president George Scalise. “A slowdown in sales of a broad range of consumer products such as personal computers, cellphones, and entertainment electronics would have an adverse impact on semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter, which is normally the strongest quarter for the chip industry. The entire supply chain, including our suppliers and customers, will be harmed if access to credit becomes difficult.”