The PC industry is clearly suffering. Two new reports out today show the  huge industry growth rate declines for the fourth quarter of 2008. Depending on who you listen to, the industry either grew at a paltry 1.1 percent year over year for Q4 or declined 0.4% year over year for Q4.

Preliminary results from Gartner show that the worldwide PC shipments totaled 78.1 million units translating to a 1.1 percent increase from the fourth quarter of last year. For Gartner, the top worldwide PC vendors were HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba (followed by other brands).

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, PC shipments were down 0.4% in Q4 when compared year over year. Q4 also saw a decline of 2.5% quarter over quarter from Q3 of 2008. 

If there was one bright spot for the quarter (and for the year), it was the netbook/mini notebook market where sales outpaced overall mobile PC growth. Unfortunately even netbook sales could not make up for the steep decline in the PC market. According to IDC, netbooks accounted for 5 million units in the fourth quarter – roughly 7% of total portables shipped.

As for the top PC vendors. Gartner and IDC show the list to be HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba.  Companies that saw an increase year over year for Q4 include HP with 3.1%, Acer with 25.3%, and Toshiba with 20.2%. Both Dell and Lenovo suffered declines year over year for Q4 with Dell decreasing by 6.3% and Lenovo decreasing by 4.8%.

According to Loren Loverde, program director for IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, “I won’t be surprised if recovery gets pushed further into 2010 as this crisis unfolds.”

[Check out IDC’s press release]

[Check out the Gartner press release]

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