PC market grows in Q2 for first time in six years

Global PC shipments emerged from a six-year slump during the second quarter to grow 1.4% year-on-year, Gartner estimates.

Total shipments grew to 62.1 million, with all regions experiencing at least some year-on-year growth.

But despite the encouraging results, Gartner Principal Analyst Mikako Kitagawa cautioned that it is too early to declare that the PC industry is experiencing a recovery just yet.

“PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment,” she said.

“In the consumer space, the fundamental market structure, due to changes on PC user behavior, still remains, and continues to impact market growth. Consumers are using their smartphones for even more daily tasks, such as checking social media, calendaring, banking and shopping, which is reducing the need for a consumer PC.”

Kitagawa also warned that momentum in the business market is also expected to weaken in the next two years as the Windows 10 upgrade cycle starts to tail off.

The top five PC vendors shipped three out of four PCs during the second quarter. Lenovo — through its recently completed joint venture with Fujitsu — and HP were in a neck-and-neck race for the top spot, each ending the quarter with a market share of 21.9% and total shipments of around 13.6 million.

Third-placed Dell shipped 10.5 million units for a market share of 16.8%, Apple shipped 4.4 million Macs and captured a market share of 7.1%, while fifth-placed Acer shipped 3.9 million units for a market share of 6.4%.

But despite the positive momentum during the first half of the year, Gartner has separately predicted that the PC market will decline by 0.76% for the full year to 260 million units.

Gartner Research Director Ranjit Atwal said the market continues to be impacted by the undersupply of DRAM due to a lack of new wafer capacity coming online.

“As a result, PC vendors will continue to increase their prices throughout 2018,” said Ranjit Atwal, Research Director at Gartner. “Larger screens and more graphic boards also mean rising costs, adding to the bill of hardware materials for businesses and household buyers.”

Combined PC and tablet sales are expected to decline 1.2%, compared to a 1.4% increase in the mobile phone market, Gartner said, reflecting the ongoing device substitution to smartphones. The total device market, consisting of PCs, tablets and mobile phones, will grow by a slim 0.9% in 2018 to 18 billion units.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/nd3000

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