Gartner : Worldwide PC Shipments Down 5.2% In Q1

(RTTNews) - Worldwide PC shipments totaled 71.7 million units in the first quarter of 2015, a 5.2 percent decline from the first quarter of 2014, according to preliminary results by Gartner Inc (IT).

"The PC industry received a boost in 2014 as many companies replaced their PCs due to the end of Windows XP support, but that replacement cycle faded in the first quarter of 2015," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "However, this decline is not necessarily a sign of sluggish overall PC sales long term. Mobile PCs, including notebooks, hybrid and Windows tablets, grew compared with a year ago. The first quarter results support our projection of a moderate decline of PC shipments in 2015, which will lead to a slow, consistent growth stage for the next five years.

Lenovo and HP were the only two vendors among the top five worldwide that experienced an increase in PC shipments in the first quarter of 2015. Lenovo experienced its strongest growth in EMEA and the U.S. It has become one of the top providers of hybrid notebooks, especially its Yoga line in mature markets.

HP performed moderately well in the first quarter, and it kept its top position in the U.S. and EMEA. HP increased share in the U.S., but in EMEA the share delta from Lenovo, the second-largest vendor in the region, narrowed compared with 4Q14.

Lenovo (LNVGY, LNVGF) held onto its position as the worldwide leader in PC shipments in the quarter with 18.9 percent of the market. The Chinese company shipped 13.58 million PCs worldwide, an increase of 5.7 percent from a year earlier.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) posted a 2.5 percent rise in shipments and boosted its share to 17.3 percent of the market.

Dell Inc.'s (DELL) shipments slipped 5.1 percent in the quarter, its first fall in six quarters, leaving it with a 12.6 percent market share. Dell was one of the vendors that benefited from replacement purchases due to the end of Windows XP support in 2014, but sales slowed as the replacement cycle faded.

In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 13.9 million units in the first quarter of 2015, a 1.3 percent decline from the first quarter of 2014. This was the first shipment decline in the U.S. after four consecutive quarters of shipment growth in 2014.

HP extended its lead in the U.S. market, as it accounted for 26.1 percent of shipments. Lenovo and ASUS showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors in the U.S., with shipment increases of 13.5 and 10.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015.