Projections from industry groups and analysts can play a part, for good or ill, in forming self-fulfilling prophecies. But let's hope that doesn't happen with Gartner's latest projections for
the PC industry in 2009, which aren't just dim—they're terrible.
Gartner believes that the PC industry will collectively ship 257 million systems in 2009, down 11.9 percent from 2008. That's the worst drop in the market's history; it dwarfs the previous record of a 3.2 percent industry contraction in 2001. In that case, sales were hit by fallout from the dot-com bubble pop and customer uncertainty in the months following 9/11. Today, of course, the problem is a bit larger—when the leaders of the world's financial system are collectively trying to keep our global, economic Titanic from going under, folks get a little less interested in buying computers and a bit more interested in jobs, basic foodstuffs, and saving money.
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