IHS:全球移动个人电脑市场Q4季增长仅9%-科技频道-金鱼财经网

元器件交易网讯 2月17日消息，根据IHS调查，尽管四年来增长强劲，但2013年第四季度移动PC全球市场仍然低于预期。

IHS表示，全球移动个人电脑出货量在2013年第四季度已达到5260万台，环比增长9.4%，第三季度为4810万台。然而，第四季度出货量远远少于业界预期的5530万台。如果以3个月为跨度，与去年同期的市场表现衡量，这相当于是连续第六个季度下降，比2012年第四季度下降5%。

IHS表示，在经历失望后，最终迎来了增长，第四季度移动PC市场环比增长9.4%。这也是自2012年经历5%环比收缩后，第二个连续增长的季度。

移动PC市场，包括笔记本电脑和PC片，现在受到无线市场强有力影响。无线PC的竞争对手如智能手机和平板电脑已经明显让消费者感到更敏捷和更具感染力，类似PC的功能在小设备上也可提供。

虽然移动PC行业已经实现自有的创新，但行业整体已不能吸引消费者远离广受欢迎的手机和平板电脑。

即便如此，一些迹象仍然给业界带来希望。例如， PC厂商预计将继续补充库存，新机将配备Bay Trail处理器，它将提供更长电池使用时间和更强大的图形性能。销售市场也将在新年期间得到回升，这是另一个鼓舞因素。

第三个驱动因素可能是Windows XP操作系统将在2014年4月到期。消费者可能考虑替换目前机器，抛弃旧笔记本电脑，支持新Windows 8设备。

最后，移动PC发烧友认为，媒体平板电脑，如苹果iPad已经达到饱和，尤其是在发达市场，这一原因也可能引发人们回归对PC功能新兴趣。

联想购买IBM的服务器业务，在服务器行业，这一举动将推动联想成为服务器行业第3大公司，仅次于惠普和戴尔。

然而，IHS公司认为，23亿美元购买带来的是对服务器行业的不确定性，特别是企业越来越多地转向定制数据中心和云存储。这完全不同于2005年，那时联想收购了IBM的PC业务，PC产业现在仍呈上升趋势。对于联想来说，在个人计算机市场赶超美国对手十分困难，收购IBM的低端服务器，能够帮助这家公司加强与惠普、戴尔等老牌公司的竞争，惠普和戴尔一直努力在他们的服务器业务获得牵引力。

对于IBM而言，出售服务器业务将让其摆脱其最低利润，并继续专注于其巨大的利润丰厚的服务和软件业务，又增加了公司的最终底线。（元器件交易网郭路平 译）

外文：

Global mobile PC market underperforms in 4Q13 despite 9% quarterly growth, says IHS

Despite the strongest sequential growth in four years, the global market for mobile PCs came in below expectations in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to IHS. Shipments of mobile PCs worldwide amounted to 52.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2013, up 9.4% from 48.1 million in the third quarter, said IHS. However, the fourth quarter result was far less than the 55.3 million units that the industry had been hoping for. And if market performance every quarter was measured against the equivalent three-month span from a year earlier, it was the sixth straight on-year decline on a quarterly basis for the period, down 5% from the fourth quarter of 2012.

"Things were looking positive for the fourth quarter of 2013 after the third had come in on target. The introduction of new platforms and the arrival of Intel"s new-generation Atom processor Bay Trail were expected to enable a new entry-level pricing point for the PC market not seen since the netbook," said Craig Stice, director for compute, servers and storage at IHS.

"But with the consumer PC market struggling, PC vendors proceeded to maintain a conservative buying plan for the holiday season with attempts to keep inventory levels lean. As a result, entry-level PCs did not make it into high volume for the holidays, and overall shipments underperformed the initial heady outlook," Stice added.

And yet the disappointment was tendered with an upshot of cheer: The 9.4% increase in the fourth quarter was the strongest sequential growth since the fourth quarter of 2009. It was also the second straight sequential rise after the 5% contraction in the second quarter, IHS noted.

The mobile PC market, which counts laptops and PC tablets, has been laboring for some time now to defy the mighty heft of the wireless market. Wireless PC rivals like smartphones and tablets have been pronounced by consumers to be more agile and appealing, with their PC-like functions made available in an abbreviated form factor.

And while the mobile PC industry has countered with innovations of its own, the industry as a whole has not been able to lure consumers away from the hugely popular handsets and tablets.

Even so, some signs are giving the industry renewed cause for optimism. For instance, PC vendors are expected to continue replenishing their inventory with new machines featuring Bay Trail, which will provide longer battery times and more powerful graphics performance. Sales could also be up around this time as Asia celebrates the Lunar New Year, another encouraging factor.

A third driver could be the scheduled expiration of the Windows XP operating system in April 2014. Consumers could then undertake a refresh of their current machines, ditching old laptops in favor of new Windows 8-equipped mobile PCs to go with upgraded hardware.

Finally, mobile PC enthusiasts believe that media tablets like the Apple iPad are reaching saturation levels especially in the developed markets, which could stoke new interest among those wishing to go back to tapping the full power of a PC, even if it is just a mobile version like a notebook.

For these reasons the decline seen in the last two years should start to level off, Stice noted, even though the PC space is not likely to bounce back to the double-digit growth once seen in years past.

Lenovo buys IBM server business

Within the server industry, the move by China"s Lenovo to acquire IBM"s server business will boost Lenovo to the No. 3 spot in servers, just behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

However, the US$2.3 billion purchase comes at a time of increasing uncertainty for servers in general, especially as businesses turn increasingly to customized data centers and cloud storage, IHS believes. This was unlike 2005 when Lenovo bought IBM"s PC business when the PC industry was clearly still on the rise. Lenovo"s advantage in the market this time, however, will lie in its ties to China, where HP and Dell have struggled to gain traction in their server operations.

For IBM, the sale will allow the New York-based giant to shed its lowest-profit segment and continue focusing on its enormously lucrative services and software business – to say nothing of adding to the company"s ultimate bottom line.