Gartner: Global PC Shipments Down 9.5% In Q2

(RTTNews) - Worldwide PC shipments fell 9.5% year-over to 68.4 million units in the second quarter of 2015, marking the steepest decline since the third quarter of 2013, according to preliminary results released Thursday by market research firm Gartner, Inc. (IT).

"The price hike of PCs became more apparent in some regions due to a sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar against local currencies," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "The price hike could hinder PC demand in these regions. Secondly, the worldwide PC market experienced unusually positive desk-based growth last year due to the end of Windows XP support. After the XP impact was phased out, there have not been any major growth drivers to stimulate a PC refresh. Lastly, the Windows 10 launch scheduled for 3Q15 has created self-regulated inventory control. PC vendors and the channels tried clearing inventory as much as possible before the Windows 10 launch."

China's Lenovo Group Ltd. maintained the top position in worldwide PC shipments in the second quarter with a 19.7% market share. However, the company suffered a year-on-year shipment decline for the first time since the second quarter of 2013. Lenovo shipped 13.46 million PCs in the second quarter, down 6.8% from the second quarter of last year.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) remained in the second position with a 17.4% market share. HP also experienced a shipment decline after five consecutive quarters of PC shipment growth. The company's shipments fell 9.5% to 11.92 million units in the second quarter.

Dell Inc. came third with a 14.0% market share. It shipped 9.58 million PCs in the second quarter, down 4.9% from last year.

In the U.S., PC shipments fell 5.8% to 15.1 million units in the second quarter of 2015, led by a double-digit decline of desk-based shipments, which offset single-digit growth of mobile PCs.

HP maintained the top position for PC shipments in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2015 despite a 10.1% decline. Dell narrowed the gap with HP compared with a year ago. Lenovo was the only vendor showing year-over-year PC shipment growth among the top five vendors in the U.S.