The PC market in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declined in the fourth quarter of 2009 due to an ongoing economic recession in all three Baltic States, as predicted. According to the latest data from International Data Corporation (IDC), PC shipments plunged by 37.4% year on year, to 95,000 units in 4Q09, despite a hike in consumer demand during the Christmas season. For the whole of 2009, the overall Baltic States PC market declined by 46% compared to the previous year.

Estonia’s PC shipments reached 25,000 units in 4Q09, down by 39.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. Latvia’s PC market, with nearly 26,000 units shipped, recorded the biggest decline – 47.0% year on year. The Lithuanian PC market performed the best, in spite of dropping 28.2% to 44,000 units in the last three months of 2009.

The market continued to be driven by portable computers, which constituted approximately 60% of units sold in 4Q09. Desktop PC shipments were impacted by weak demand from the commercial segment.

HP maintained its lead on the Baltic market thanks to a broad portfolio of products – especially consumer notebooks – that offset the shipment decline in the commercial segment.

“Competition resulting from shrinking market led to strong price pressures. As a consequence, despite Windows 7 launched in the fourth quarter, vendors like Dell and Toshiba in Lithuania bet on notebooks with Ubuntu or without an operating system in order to keep their prices low,” says Research Analyst Marek Kujda, who is responsible for the Baltic States PC market at IDC CEMA.

IDC expects that the PC market in the Baltic Sates will benefit from a rebound in commercial purchases and an overall economic recovery in 2010. However, tough competition will continue to push prices down.

IDC's PC Quarterly Tracker delivers timely intelligence and an inclusive database detailing changes and trends in the Baltic States PC market. The tracker enables users to view data by volume, value, country, year, quarter, vendor, brand, processor brand, and channel. It also includes easy-to-read summaries that analyze volume and value by form factor, vendor, and end-user segment.

For more information about IDC's PC market research or other products and services, please contact Jakub El Mahdi (jelmahdi@idc.com, +48 22 548 40 53) or Tatiana Hinova (thinova@idc.com, +420 221 423 140).