Worldwide PC Shipments Slightly Down In Q3

In positive news for the PC industry, Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst, noted results in Western Europe and North America “can be a sign of gradual recovery”.

Kitagawa stated tablet adoption has peaked with mainstream consumers, with consumers’ attention slowly going back to PC purchases.

“The transition from PCs to tablets has faded as tablet penetration has reached the 40-50 per cent range,” Kitagawa commented.

Weakness in the emerging market, however, reflected saturation in selected consumer segments where they can afford PCs – consumers who don’t have PCs will likely buy a low-priced tablet, Kitagawa stated, noting this is “one of the major reasons for the slow growth in PC shipments in the emerging market”.

All top five PC vendors enjoyed stronger growth compared to the industry average in the third quarter.

Lenovo accounted for 19.8% of the market share, followed by HP with 17.9%, Dell 12.8%, Acer Group 8.6%, and Asus 7.3%.

With HP announcing its intention to split into two companies, Gartner noted the impact on its PC business operation “should not be significant”.

HP was the number one vendor in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and the US.

In the Asia Pacific, PC shipments of 26.2 million units represented a 5.3 per cent decline year-on-year.

Gartner noted the market “remained challenging”, especially in China where the PC purchasing appetite has slowed due to “more pragmatic consumer and government IT spending”.