Worldwide PC Shipments Drop 7.3% In Q1: Gartner

(RTTNews) - Research and consulting firm Gartner Inc. Monday said that worldwide PC shipments dropped 7.3% in first quarter of 2022, hurt largely by sharp drop in Chromebook shipments.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 77.5 million units in the first quarter, a 7.3% decrease from the first quarter of 2021, according to preliminary results by Gartner. A sharp drop in Chromebook sales significantly contributed to the overall market decline, the research said.

"After an unprecedented Chromebook surge in 2020 and early 2021, driven by demand from the U.S. educational market, Chromebook growth has tempered," said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner. "It was a challenging quarter for the PC and Chromebook market to achieve growth, as this time last year the PC market registered its highest growth in decades."

Excluding Chromebooks, the worldwide PC market grew by 3.3% year over year. Besides lower Chromebook sales, slowed consumer demand contributed to the market's downward trend, as consumer spending shifted away from devices.

Business PCs, however, saw growth in the first quarter of 2022 as hybrid work and the return to offices created demand for desktop devices.

Lenovo was the top vendor with a 23.6% worldwide market share. The company shipped 18.3 million units in the quarter, down 12.6%. HP Inc. came in at second with 20.5% market share after shipping 15.9 million units in the first quarter, down 17.8%.

Dell market share rose to 17.7% from 15.7% last year, as its shipments rose 5.0% to 13.7 million units. This quarter marked Dell's sixth consecutive period of growth, achieved in part due to the company's relatively minor presence in the declining Chromebook and consumer PC segments.

Apple continued its momentum to start this year, led by the popularity of the M1-based Mac devices. The company shipped 7 million units, up 8.6%. In the first quarter Apple introduced Mac Studio, a M1-based premium desktop model, driving sales among PC users who require high processing power.