PC sales exceeded expectations in Q1 2015: IDC

Market research firm IDC has revealed worldwide PC shipment figures for the first quarter of 2015, which, despite a year-on-year decline of -6.7 per cent were “slightly ahead of previous projections,” the organization said.

A total of 68.5 million units were shipped during the first quarter, according to data compiled by IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

Leading the pack again was Lenovo, which saw 3.4 per cent growth since this period last year, and held 19.6 per cent market share this quarter, just ahead of HP, which has a market share of 19 per cent and saw 3.3 per cent growth.

In a somewhat distant third at 13.5 per cent market share is Dell, which saw a drop in sales by 6.3 per cent from Q1 2014.  Acer Group and Asus round out the top five.

“PCs remain at the heart of our business, delivering 65% of our revenue and record pre-tax income last quarter of almost $500m,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo in a statement. “Given industry consolidation, Lenovo’s consistent focus on innovation and delivering award-winning PCs, and our ongoing momentum, we are confident that PCs will continue to be a great engine of strong, profitable growth.”

According to IDC, vendors in Q1 faced headwinds including “inventory build-up of Windows Bing based notebooks, commercial slow down following the XP refresh and constrained demand in many regions due to currency fluctuations and unfavorable economic indicators.”

Due to this, shipments dipped below 69 million units, which IDC said was the lowest recorded volume since Q1 2009.

Despite this, the U.S. saw a slower rate of decline than any other region this quarter, shrinking only by 1 per cent compared to Q1 2014.  IDC attributed growth in the region to portables as well as emerging products such as Chromebooks, Bing notebooks, ultraslims and convertibles.  Unsurprisingly, desktop shipments were slow.

“The upcoming launch of Windows 10 will consolidate the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1,” said Rajani Singh, senior research analyst of personal computing at IDC. “In addition to the free upgrade for consumers for a year after the release, Windows 10 should be a net positive as there is pent-up demand for replacements of older PCs. Only part of the installed base needs to replace systems to keep the overall growth rate above zero for rest of the year.”

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Dave Yin
Dave Yin
Digital Staff Writer at Computer Dealer News, covering Canada's IT channel.

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