New year brings bad news for PC manufacturers as shipments decline in Q4 of 2018

The New Year brought bad news for PC manufacturers as shipments dropped by 4.3% in Q4 of 2018 and 1.3% for the year. The report was published by Gartner earlier today which noted a significant drop in the shipments.

According to the new report from Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totaled 68.6 million units in Q4 of 2018 which is a 4.3% decline from Q4 of 2017. For the year 2018 PC shipments totaled 259.4 million units which is a 1.3% decline from 2017.

Just when demand in the PC market started seeing positive results, a shortage of CPUs (central processing units) created supply chain issues. After two quarters of growth in 2Q18 and 3Q18, PC shipments declined in the fourth quarter. The impact from the CPU shortage affected vendors’ ability to fulfill demand created by business PC upgrades. We expect this demand will be pushed forward into 2019 if CPU availability improves.

Political and economic uncertainties in some countries dampened PC demand. There was even uncertainty in the U.S. — where the overall economy has been strong — among vulnerable buyer groups, such as small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Consumer demand remained weak in the holiday season. Holiday sales are no longer a major factor driving consumer demand for PCs.

–  Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst, Gartner

There is some good news for Lenovo who managed to beat HP to the number one spot by acquiring 24.2% of the market. HP came on second with 22.4% of the market and was followed by Dell at 15.9% market share. Unfortunately, things aren’t looking good for the PC manufacturers as this is the seventh consecutive year of worldwide PC shipment decline. As the world moves towards adopting more compact technology, PCs might become a thing of the past.