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PC growth remains slow as new Ultrabooks have little impact
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Worldwide PC shipments totalled 87.5m units in Q2 2012, a decline of 0.1% y-o-y, according to analysts Gartner.
Hewlett Packard is still the top PC maker with almost 15% of the world market – although suffered a y-o-y fall of 12.1% while No. 2 Lenovo actually grew over 14%.
The Asia Pacific market actually grew 2% – one of the biggest increases globally – as shipments hit 31.8 m, while the weak U.S. (-5.75) and Euro economies plus the slowdown in China all affected consumer sentiments, Gartner said.
The PC market decline marks the seventh consecutive quarter of flat to single-digit growth, to date.
HP’s disappointing results were due to organizational changes and its PC business has not been back to pre re-structuring level yet, Gartner notes
The Palo Alto based giant also faced “aggressive pricing” from Lenovo in the professional market, and Asus and Samsung in the consumer end.
Acer (11%), Dell (10.7%) and Asus (7%) all came out as top 5 global vendors, with Asus recording phenomenal growth – almost 40% (38.2%) growth in the past year.
ASUS’ strong growth came from EMEA and U.S. markets and did well at diversifying its product portfolio – starting with mini-notebook expansion, then moving to the mid- high-end notebooks.
Mac maker Apple didn’t even manage a top 5 place in the global PC ranking, but still managed a No. 3 placing in the US top 5 PC makers, and even managed growth of 4.3% – one of the only vendors to do so – despite the fall in the market locally.
A tightening of coroprate budgets, lack of new government spending as well as consumers who “either spent on alternative devices or remained cautious,” says Gartner.
The decline of the once loved PC is also linked to the huge rise in the popularity of tablets, like iPad and Androids which has witnessed phenonomal growth in just two years since iPad virtually launched the category.
“Consumers are less interested in spending on PCs as there are other technology product and services, such as the latest smartphones and media tablets that they are purchasing,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
“Despite the high expectations for the thin and light notebook segment, Ultrabooks, shipment volume was small and little impact on overall shipment growth.”
And despite the massive R&D spending has been allocated to Intel’s ultra thin, ultra light Ultrabook category, and Intel’s major investment, this segment is still in an “early adopter’s stage,” say the analysts.
Cautious consumer spending may also hinder future growth of Microsfot’s new Windows 8 OS and more Ultramobile notebooks due arrive in H2.
