Both biggest IT research companies have lowered their forecasts concerning PC sales in 2003 and 2004. Gartner Dataquest and IDC expect PC sales to grow in the range of just 6% this year because of hazy economic conditions.

IDC research firm thinks that this year there will be sold 145.2 million personal, server and mobile computers based on chips from Intel or AMD. This is 6.3% more than in 2002; previous estimates indicated 6.9% growth this year. IDC also lowered its forecast for 2004 shipments, which are now expected to increase by 10.3%, rather than by 10.9%, News.com reported.

At the same time, the aggregate value of PC shipments this year is expected to decline 2.4%, but that looks likely to be followed by growth of 3.5% in 2004. Previously, IDC had expected revenue from shipments to fall 1.8% in 2003 and rise 2.9% the year after that.

Gartner Dataquest thinks upward trend in PC shipments will continue through the second quarter, but is also sure that yearly growth will not exceed 6.60%.

In 2002 PC shipments increased 1.5%, while in 2001 PC sales shrank.