IDC's United States Quarterly PC Tracker® satisfies the growing demand for detailed, timely, and accurate information on the U.S. PC market. This product provides insightful analysis, quarterly market share data, and rolling eight-quarter and five-year forecasts. The core of this product is a comprehensive electronic database detailing changes and trends in the highly competitive PC market. Quarterly updates provide the latest information on the rapidly changing market for time-critical decision making for PC and peripheral vendors as well as financial institutions.

This tracker provides total market size and vendor share for the following technology areas and segmentations. Measurement for this tracker is in shipments and end-user spending.

Technologies and subtechnologies:

• Form factor: Desktop and portable product category — mini notebook PC, mobile workstation, desktop workstation, all-in-one, notebook PC (13in.+), tablet PC, ultraportable PC (12in. and smaller), and other desktop PC; more than 30 mid- and top-tier vendor and vendor brands; and United States–based white-box systems builders
• Quarterly shipments and end-user spending, with historical information from 1994
• Rolling eight-quarter and five-year forecasts

Segmentations:

• Channels: Dealer/VAR/SI, e-tailer, telco, vendor direct-Internet, vendor direct-relationship, vendor direct-store, vendor direct-transactional, retail, and others
• Company size: Education, government, home, large business (500–999 employees), medium-sized business (100–499), small business (10–99), small office (1–9), very large business
• 40+ processor groups by vendor, brand, and speed
• 28+ price bands
• Units, value (with and without display for desktops), and ASP (with and without display for desktops) measurement

• United States

Forecasts for this tracker are updated quarterly and include up to five years of historical data, up to two years of quarterly forecasts, and an additional three years of annual market projections. Forecasts and segmentations available include:

• Form factor: Desktop and portable
• Product category: Desktop, large portable PCs, small portable PCs, and mini notebook PCs
• Channels
• Segments

This tracker is delivered on a quarterly basis with tools such as pivot tables. The delivery schedule for this tracker is as follows:

• Week 2: Preliminary top 5 United States
• Week 3: Preliminary top 10 by form factor
• Week 4: Telebriefing
• Week 6: Historical database published
• Week 8: Forecast database published
• U.S. Public Sector Module breaks the education sector into K–12 and higher education and the government sector into federal and state/local. The data is reported for vendors at the form factor, brand, and processor levels.
• U.S. Quarterly PC Segment-by-Channel Module analyzes how PC segments perform within channels and also channel performance within segments. The data is for vendor and brand and is available two weeks after the database is released.
• U.S. Quarterly PC and Monitor Attach Rates Module looks at the frequency with which a PC monitor ships alongside a PC. The data is reported by form factor and monitor size and segmented by consumer, SMB, enterprise, education, and government. The data answers requests from PC vendors and major CRT/LCD vendors to understand trends and market opportunities.
• U.S. Quarterly PC Matrix takes a deeper dive into the U.S. market. This add-on gets to the model level, looking at characteristics such as screen size, weight, memory, and hard drive.

IDC's tracker data is developed using a rigorous methodology that includes well-planned and well-coordinated local, regional, and worldwide data cross-checks combined with a proprietary advanced data consolidation and analysis data platform managed by IDC's Worldwide Tracker organization. Data sources used in the process of determining IDC's tracker numbers include, but are not limited to:

• In-country local vendor interviews
• Distribution data feeds
• Worldwide and regional vendor guidance
• ODM data
• In-country local channel partner discussions
• Import records
• Feedback from component suppliers
• Vendor briefings and public financial reports

IDC trackers provide the accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecast information you need to identify market and product expansion opportunities, increase revenues, and win market share. IDC's tracker research is a critical input to the planning and monitoring cycles of the business process. Common uses of the tracker data include:

Planning Process

• Regional, state or city-level planning — setting regional, country, state or city-level sales targets based on market opportunity
• Product marketing — creating a product strategy and road map based on currently available product features and expected growth
• Production planning — using customer demand data as an input in the creation of production schedules
• Product portfolio planning — accessing accurate and detailed data as an input into the product development process

Monitoring Process

• Performance measurement — comparing vendor performance on prior fiscal periods
• Competitive analysis — reviewing competitor performance across multiple dimensions: product, features, channel, segment, geography
• Sales forecasting measurement — assessing internal sales forecast versus actual results
• Price benchmarking — comparing vendor versus market pricing data by model
• Marketing communications — using positive results for messaging in the press, at partner events, or in sales collateral