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The worldwide PC market recorded 1 per cent year-on-year growth in the 2014 fourth quarter, according to preliminary results from technology research firm Gartner, with the results indicating a “a slow, but consistent improvement following more than two years of decline”.Worldwide PC shipments totalled 83.7 million units for the quarter, Gartner stated, with PCs gaining back ground following the tablet boom.
“The PC market is quietly stabilising after the installed base reduction driven by users diversifying their device portfolios,” commented Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst.
“Installed base PC displacement by tablets peaked in 2013 and the first half of 2014. Now that tablets have mostly penetrated some key markets, consumer spending is slowly shifting back to PCs.”
Kitagawa noted, while mature regions mostly show an ongoing trend of positive growth, emerging markets remain weak.
“The US showed the highest growth in the fourth quarter of 2014,” she stated. “In EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa], the Western Europe PC market also showed good consumer sales.
“Emerging markets, on the other hand, still showed weak PC growth. We attribute this weakness to a strong affinity for smartphones and tablets in those markets, while PCs are a low priority. Even low-priced notebooks struggle to succeed because of the different mobile device usage patterns.”
Lenovo remained the worldwide leader in PC shipments for the quarter, claiming 19.4 per cent of the market and recording 7.5 per cent year-on-year growth, with HP taking out the second position with 18.8 per cent of the market and recording 16 per cent year-on-year growth.
Dell came third, claiming a 12.7 per cent market share and posting 8.8 per cent year-on-year growth, with Acer, fourth, claiming 8.1 per cent of the market and recording 11.6 per cent growth, while Asus rounded out the top five with 7.5 per cent of the market and 0.6 per cent growth.
Gartner stated the Asia Pacific market showed a “modest recovery”, with shipments totalling 26.6 million units for the quarter, a 2 per cent increase year-on-year, amid an overall trend “towards a slowdown of declining growth”, with mature markets leading the recovery.
“This bottoming out of the market suggests that the installed base is stabilising, and replacement demand is recovering,” Gartner stated.
Total PC shipments for 2014 of 315.9 million units represented a decline of 0.2 per cent from 316.5 million units in 2013.
While Lenovo and HP were in a virtual tie for the overall lead in PC shipments in 2013, Lenovo took the lead in 2014, claiming 18.8 per cent of units shipped, with HP claiming a 17.5 per cent share.
