A few months ago, one of the biggest data-gathering companies around claimed that notebooks had, for the first time since the notebook itself was created, exceeded global desktop shipments on a per-quarter basis. IDC figures at the end of October showed that notebook shipments were responsible for 55% of new PC sales, which represented around 9.5 million machines.
Those numbers have now been backed by other industry analysts such as iSuppli, who show that worldwide notebook sales had a significant gain in the third quarter of 2008, putting them above desktops. Notebooks saw a 40% increase over a year prior, with total shipments for notebooks exceeding desktops by around 100,000 units, sitting at 38.6 million sold. They do specify those figures are for shipments, not actual retail sales, but the pattern is clear: today more people want laptops than want desktops.
What was further interesting was the data showing that demand for computer hardware has not decreased despite of the current economic climate. Q3 was stronger than anticipated for PC sales.