A new study from researcher IDC shows that the percentage of notebook PCs shipped, versus shipments of desktops, rose again in the first quarter of 2002 for the third consecutive year. Notebooks made up 23.8 percent of worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of this year, up from 21.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2001 and 22.3 percent in the first quarter of last year.
Sales are on track to break the 25 percent barrier in the next three years, according to IDC.
Notebooks have increased steadily as a percentage of total PC sales since the first quarter of 1998. At that time, notebooks comprised 17.6 percent of the market. By the first quarter of 1999, they claimed 18.2 percent of the market, jumping to 20 percent by the first quarter of 2000. Since the first quarter of 1998, unit shipments have doubled from about 3.6 million to about 7.2 million in the first quarter of 2002, IDC said.
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