Survey: Global Sales of Personal Computers Fell Again

Global sales of personal computers (PC) fell again for the fifth consecutive quarter in the April-June period, the longest decline in the history of the PC market, a research firm said.

A survey by Gartner found Lenovo from China crept past Hewlett-Packard as the world’s largest vendors, regaining the top spot that had gained in the past year, reports AFP.

Early figures showed a decline in worldwide amounted to 10.9 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, with shipments of PC dropped to 76 million units.

Survey - Global Sales of Personal Computers Fell Again

“We see a drop in PC market is directly linked to the shrinking base of installed PCs, when a cheap tablet replaces the use of the old machine mainly for consumption in mature and developing markets,” said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst from Gartner.

“In emerging markets, cheap tablet has become the first computing devices for many people, it is best to delay the purchase of a PC. It also contributed to the collapse of the mini-notebook market.”

Gartner survey shows the Lenovo global market share take 16.7 percent by sending 12,67 million units, just in front of HP 12.4 million units with a share of 16.3 percent. Both companies see a drop in sales, but Lenovo limited only down 0.6 percent while HP fell 4.8 percent of sales.

Dell is the seller for number three, with sales of 8.9 million units and a market share of 11.8 percent.

Seller number four is Acer which decreased by 35 percent, and fifth place Asus which showed decreased 20.5 percent after both companies based in Taiwan decided to exit from mini notebook market.

PC market has been the difficulty when the people shifting to the tablet, and got a little help from the new Windows 8 operating system introduced by Microsoft in the past year.

“While Windows 8 has been blamed by some people as a reason for declining PC market, we believe this is unfounded since it does not explain the decrease in shipments of PC are sustainable, nor does it explain the performance of the Apple market,” Kitagawa said.

Apple is not among the most top five global vendors, but the third in the U.S. market with a decline of 4.3 percent in sales in the last quarter, said Gartner.

Overall sales in the u.s. totaled 15 million units in the second quarter, down 1.4 percent from the previous year, and the figure was 8.5 percent higher than the first quarter.

Kitagawa said the U.S. market shows resilience because of “steady growth in professional markets,” with some of the replacement of the company’s computers.

In the region including Europe, Middle East and Africa, sales fell 10.5 percent seen PC year-over-year, said Gartner. In Asia, the decline of 11.5 percent.

A separate survey conducted by research firm IDC shows the same picture, estimates a decrease of 11.4 percent and 75,6 million units. But IDC said the decline was not as bad as previously estimated.

“We are still looking for some improvement in growth during the second half of this year,” said IDC analyst Jay Chou.

“While efforts by the PC ecosystem to lower price points and embrace the touch computing will make PC more attractive, there is still much that needs to be done in an exciting product launches and overcome competition from devices like tablets.”

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