Worldwide PC market continues to slump, according to new Gartner report

Gartner Group, in its latest study, says that traditional promotions such as back-to-school sales no longer make an impact on the market as the PC sector continues to decline even further.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 67 million units in the third quarter of 2017, a 3.6 per cent decline from the third quarter of 2016, according to preliminary results by Gartner. This is the 12th consecutive quarter of declining PC shipments.

“While there were signs of stabilization in the PC industry in key regions, including EMEA, Japan and Latin America, the relatively stable results were offset by the U.S. market, which saw a 10 per cent year-over-year decline in part because of a very weak back-to-school sales season,” said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

“Business PC demand, led by Windows 10 upgrades, continued to drive PC shipments across all regions, but its refresh schedule varies by region. The countries with stable economies, such as the U.S., have created a positive sentiment among businesses, especially for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), which are more vulnerable to external events, such as economic or political.”

There are ongoing component shortages, with DRAM shortages getting particularly worse during the third quarter of the year compared with the first half of 2017. “The component price hike impacted the consumer PC market as most vendors generally pass the price hike on to consumers, rather than absorbing the cost themselves,” Kitagawa said. “We expect the DRAM shortage to continue to the end of 2018, but it will not be reflected in the final PC prices immediately.”

In the third quarter of 2017, HP Inc. and Lenovo were in a virtual tie for the top spot in the PC market based on shipments. However, HP Inc. is in an upward trend, as it has experienced five consecutive quarters of global PC growth, while Lenovo is in a downward trend with declining shipments in eight of the last 10 quarters.

So who is on top? HP Inc. has 21.8 per cent marketshare based on Q3 figures this year followed closely by Lenovo at 21.4 per cent.

Then there is Dell at 15.2 per cent; Asus at 7.2 per cent; Apple is at 6.9 per cent; and Acer is sixth with 6.5 per cent. All other PC vendors drop in at 21 per cent.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

CDN Staff
CDN Staffhttps://channeldailynews.com
For over 25 years, CDN has been the voice of the IT channel community in Canada. Today through our digital magazine, e-mail newsletter, video reports, events and social media platforms, we provide channel partners with the information they need to grow their business.

Related Tech News

Featured Tech Jobs

 

CDN in your inbox

CDN delivers a critical analysis of the competitive landscape detailing both the challenges and opportunities facing solution providers. CDN's email newsletter details the most important news and commentary from the channel.