Gartner: PC Shipments increase for first time since 2012

At last PC industry seems to have taken a U-turn and registered positive growth. According to Gartner, global PC vendor unit shipments grew by 1.4% YoY in first quarter of 2018. This is the first time since 2012 that PC industry registered positive growth. Do note that this does not account for assembled PC sales that dominate developing countries. This change is mainly due to demands in business segment and the downturn in consumer segment continues.

Thanks to tie-up with Fujitsu, Lenovo managed to get to the top and dethrone HP to be the leader in global PC shipments. Though HP increased shipments, fell behind Lenovo. Dell retained #3 spot and Apple retained #4 spot. Acer managed to round of the top 5.

Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q18 (Thousands of Units)

“PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “In the consumer space, the fundamental market structure, due to changes on PC user behavior, still remains, and continues to impact market growth. Consumers are using their smartphones for even more daily tasks, such as checking social media, calendaring, banking and shopping, which is reducing the need for a consumer PC.

“In the business segment, PC momentum will weaken in two years when the replacement peak for Windows 10 passes. PC vendors should look for ways to maintain growth in the business market as the Windows 10 upgrade cycle tails off.”

“In the U.S., business PC demand was particularly strong among the public sector as the second quarter is typically PC buying season among government and education buyers,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “Desk-based PC growth was attributed to continued high usage of desk-based PCs in the U.S. public sectors. Mobile PCs grew in the U.S., but strong Chromebook demand in the education market adversely affected PC growth. Overall, Chromebooks grew 8 percent in the U.S., but Chromebooks are not included in the PC market statistics.”

Table 2
Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q18 (Thousands of Units)

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