Preliminary numbers show Asian PC shipments, excluding Japan, fell to 17.2 million units during the fourth quarter -- far short of the 19.8 million units forecast by IDC for the period. The market research firm has not recorded a decline in PC shipments for Asia since the third quarter of 1998, during the Asian financial crisis when widespread currency devaluations wreaked havoc on regional economies.

IDC said much of the shortfall in expected fourth-quarter PC shipments came from China, where domestic demand fell short of expectations.

"The optimist in us was hoping that, despite the global economic downturn, domestic demand would be strong enough to keep things moving in China. Turns out that didn't happen," said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific, calling the fourth quarter numbers a "jaw dropper."

The slowdown in Asian PC demand hit the largest vendor, Lenovo Group, hard, pushing down the company's PC shipments by 4.4 percent over the previous year. Second-ranked Hewlett-Packard also suffered, with its fourth-quarter shipments down 3.6 percent.

Some companies did well relatively during the fourth quarter. Dell and Acer both saw PC shipments rise, but the big winner was Taiwan's Asustek Computer. The maker of the popular Eee PC netbook saw Asian shipments climb 26.5 percent over the previous year, making it the region's fifth-largest PC vendor.