A top Wall Street analyst has predicted the average selling prices for PCs will fall by as much 14% this year and has cut 2009 unit sales forecasts for the sector, saying volumes will drop by 10% this year rather than show an expected 6% fall.
Reports in Barron’s Tech Trader Daily cite a hardware analyst at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch as saying that a combination of slowing demand and the impact of low-cost netbooks will compress PC prices this year.
“Our revision is predicated on deteriorating global business conditions, tighter IT budgets and weakening consumer spending,” he said.
The bank expects revenues in the PC sector to be down 22% in 2009.
