Some industries may be under the threat of recession, but there surely is one that isn’t. The PC industry is still enjoying a healthy sales clip in the second quarter of 2008. Gartner Research said, with worldwide shipments shooting up 16% during this period, but with US shipments growing at 4.2%.

Gartner's competitor IDC report varies slightly and reports 15%, worldwide sales growth for PCs and US shipments as 3.6% up. The research firms confirms that Hewlett-Packard holds the top rank with fast growing Dell at second position.

Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner's Client Computing Markets group, said the reason for sales growth of PCs is because of their low average selling prices (ASPs). 'Economic uncertainties have hit PC revenues, resulting in steep ASP declines, especially in markets such as the United States and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. The industry could ultimately see a significant wave of consolidation if stronger vendors continue to press their pricing advantage.'

IDC director Loren Loverde said the competition among the vendors for channels and the aggressive pricing is adding to the ongoing trend of portable computing.  'Economic challenges are spreading ahead of the US,' Loverde said. Growth in Asia has been soft, and considering the fact that India and China are important growth markets for PC vendors, the soft growth could be poor for the future.  X