LOS ANGELES, March 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Global PC shipments will stagger around 195 million units during 2005, compared to about 178 million in 2004, according to a revised forecast released by IT market researcher IDC on Wednesday.

    Despite strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2004, delayed recovery in Japan and a cautious outlook in the United States have led to slightly lower expectations for worldwide PC shipments in 2005, according to the report.

    The updated forecast from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker lowers growth in total worldwide PC shipments for 2005 from 10.1 percent in the November release to 9.7 percent. The good news is that demand is likely to shift into later years and the growth forecast remains above 8 percent through the end of 2009.

    Total PC shipments are expected to reach 195.4 million in 2005 on growth of 9.7 percent, with shipment value growing by 5.3 percent to 209 billion US dollars. Shipments are projected to reach 273 million in 2009 with a value of 245 billion dollars.

    In the United States, the IDC said, shipments are expected to grow to 62.7 million in 2005, compared with 58.3 million in 2004 --growth of 7.6 percent. This is markedly lower than the 11 percent growth seen in the past two years, the IDC said.

    "While IT buyers in the United States have indicated firm intentions to buy in 2005, we have kept the US forecast modest because of what we see as a host of risk factors," Roger Kay, vice president of client computing at the IDC, said in a statement.

    "These factors include a recovery that appears to be getting long in the tooth, a lack of jobs growth, rising budget and trade deficits, persistently high oil prices, a Treasury-draining foreign war, rising interest rates, a stock market that continues to move sideways and record-low household savings rates."

    In Western Europe, notebook PC shipments are expected to jump 20 percent in 2005, following more than 30 percent growth in 2004 and about 40 percent the year before, the report forecast.

    The business segment in Japan, which saw strong 12 percent growth in 2004, is likely to dip below 5 percent this year, IDC said.

    In the Asia-Pacific region, growth will be slower than the 16 percent seen in 2004 but will remain in the double digits, despite the Indian Ocean tsunami in December. Public sector growth is expected to outpace growth in business segments by the end of the year, while consumer growth will slip into single-digits.

    But the long-term prosperity of PC market is still expectable, according to the IDC.

    "While overall growth in 2005 will be slower than 2004, we expect to see continued strength in portables and in emerging markets. Although worldwide growth will slip into single-digits this year, long-term drivers such as mobile adoption, replacement of older systems, and growing penetration will support healthy growth through the end of the decade," Kay said. Enditem