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The US personal-computer market declined for the first time in a decade last year, hurt by sluggish consumer spending, supply shortages, and the popularity of smartphones and tablets.

Shipments slipped 4.9 percent to 71.3 million in 2011, the worst performance since 2001, research firm IDC said today. The US market fell 6.7 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 0.2 percent drop for worldwide shipments. A separate report from Gartner pegged the fourth-quarter US decline at 5.9 percent, with global shipments decreasing 1.4 percent.

Consumers and small businesses are holding off on orders while they ride out the sluggish economy, even as many corporate buyers stock up on PCs. Flood-ravaged disk-drive factories in Thailand also took a toll on the market, though component shortages resulting from the disaster will have a bigger impact in 2012, Gartner found.

Worldwide shipments declined to 92.7 million in the fourth quarter, from 92.9 million a year earlier, IDC said.

Gartner put the number at 92.2 million, down from 93.5 million. In 2001, when the industry was suffering from a recession and the dot-com bust, US PC shipments tumbled about 12 percent.

Hewlett-Packard, which decided in October to keep its PC business in house after exploring a potential spin-off, remained the industry’s top seller in the fourth quarter.

Still, its global market share slipped to 16 percent from 18.8 percent, according to Gartner.

PC makers are counting on thin, lightweight laptops called ultrabooks — a term coined by Intel — to fuel growth this year.

Hewlett-Packard and Dell both unveiled new ultrabooksat the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. 

Bloomberg