Gartner: Global PC Shipments Fall 6.9% In Q4

(RTTNews) - Worldwide PC shipments fell 6.9% year-over-year to 82.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to preliminary results by market research firm Gartner, Inc. (IT).

This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of shipment decline.

"Although PC shipments continued to decline in the worldwide market in the fourth quarter, we increasingly believe markets, such as the U.S., have bottomed out as the adjustment to the installed base slows," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Strong growth in tablets continued to negatively impact PC growth in emerging markets."

China's Lenovo continued to be the world's largest PC vendor in the fourth quarter with a 18.1% market share, followed by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) with 16.4% and Dell with 11.8%. Taiwan's Acer Group took the fourth position with 7.8% market share.

HP and Lenovo have been virtually neck and neck for the top global position in the PC market throughout 2013.

For the full year 2013, worldwide PC shipments fell 10% to 315.97 million units. Lenovo was the top PC vendor with 16.9% market share, followed by HP with 16.2% and Dell with 11.6%.

In the U.S., PC shipments fell 7.5% to 15.8 million units in the fourth quarter. HP continued to be the No. 1 vendor in the U.S., as it accounted for 26.5% of shipments, followed by Dell with 22.8% and Apple, Inc. (AAPL) with 13.7%.