PC products sales grew by over 8 percent in U.S. retail stores between January and September of 2003, compared to only 2.8 percent for the first nine months of 2002, according to The NPD Group. Sales were especially strong in the third quarter of 2003 with revenue growth of 11.5 percent. Overall sales for the first nine months of 2003 topped $21.7 billion with consumables, paper and ink remaining the primary revenue generator with sales of over $5 billion.

Seven NPD categories generated over $1 billion in sales in 2003 with the most recent entrant to the billion-dollar club, storage media, posting the fastest year over year revenue growth of any of the larger categories. The demand for blank DVDs and flash memory, caused by the proliferation of DVD recorders and the meteoric rise of the digital camera market, has driven the storage media category to a 38 percent increase in revenue. Among the other top categories, notebook revenue jumped more than 16 percent but was offset by the decline in desktop revenue leaving overall retail computer revenues flat. Display revenue grew by 4 percent as the precipitous drop-off in CRT based monitors has been balanced with the increasing popularity of LCD monitors.

"These numbers reflect a consumer technology market that is being restored to health after two and one-half years of weak numbers," said Stephen Baker, The NPD Group’s director of industry analysis. "Clearly the popularity of new technologies such as digital cameras, LCD monitors and wireless computing has opened up pent-up demand and renewed consumers’ interest in PC products. Robust sales numbers such as these are clear evidence that consumers are responding to these new technologies by opening up their wallets again."

The list of top sales growth categories clearly reflects these renewed desires. Of special interest is the astounding sales growth in large categories such as Multi-Function Devices, LCD monitors and Wireless Networking. All three are experiencing gains by enticing consumers through technology improvements, aggressive pricing and better functionality. Consumers are also embracing new technologies like wireless networking and DVD recording and generating impressive sales results.

"One striking feature of the top growth categories is the growth in storage-related products," said Baker. "As the digital revolution generates more bits and bytes, consumers are clearly looking for places to store this information. Even as long-standing a segment as hard drives has been able to produce impressive sales results as the need for storage increases. Demand for DVD burners and disks can be traced as well to the growing requirements for large capacity storage media."