There were over 820 million PCs in use throughout the world in 2004 and the total is projected to top 1 billion in 2007. Why is no one talking about birth contol for PCs? What will we feed them?
Growth is slowing as the industrialized world, but will continue in the developing countries for another decade, according to Computer Industry Almanac. The U.S. is way out in front with over 220 million of the suckers, accounting for over 27% of all PCs in use. By way of comparison, the U.S. only accounts for 4.6% of worldwide population.
PC usage is growing rapidly in China (and is expected to surpass Japan in 2007), and also in other populous emerging countries such as Brazil, India and Russia.
The totals:
rank, country, PCs, percentage
1. U.S. 223.81 27.22
2. Japan 69.20 8.42
3. China 52.99 6.45
4. Germany 46.30 5.63
5. UK 35.89 4.37
6. France 29.41 3.58
7. South Korea 26.20 3.19
8. Italy 22.65 2.75
9. Canada 22.39 2.72
10. Brazil 19.35 2.35
11. Russia 19.01 2.31
12. Australia 13.72 1.67
13. India 13.03 1.58
14. Mexico 11.21 1.36
15. Netherlands 11.11 1.35
Top 15 Total 616.27 74.96
Worldwide Total 822.15 100.0
The digital divide would appear to be closing, but we sure have a head start.