Data research firms Gartner and IDC are pleased to announce that PC sales are better than expected and have revised their previous estimates for 2008 worldwide PC shipments . It seems the aticipated economic slowdown has not been as bad as they originally anticipated. In March IDC predicted that worldwide PC shipments would grow by 12.8 percent, but now forsees growth increasing by 15.2 percent. While Gartner now believes sales will increse by 12.5 percent, up from their March prediction of 10.9 percent. According to IDC portable PC sales are growing much faster than desktops, with portable sales expected to increase by 23.6 percent this year while desktop sales drop 2.8 percent. By 2012, annual worldwide laptop sales are expected to almost triple compared with 2006.