IDC: PC Shipments Beat Expectations On Less Than Expected Year-On-Year Decline Of 6.7%
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According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, worldwide PC shipments totaled 68.5 million units in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15), a year-on-year decline of -6.7%, and slightly ahead of previous projections. Lenovo held onto the top position with 13.4M units, and grew 3.4%. HP remained in the number two position, shipping nearly 13 million PCs. Dell came in at the number 3 position, shipping over 9.2 million units, registering a year-over-year decline of -6.3%.
Following a strong second half of 2014, which benefitted from the tailwind of the Windows XP refresh and pockets of price-driven consumer activity, the Q1 market faced multiple headwinds – including inventory build-up of Windows Bing based notebooks, commercial slow down following the XP refresh and constrained demand in many regions due to currency fluctuations and unfavorable economic indicators. As a result, growth and volume declined with Q1 shipments below 69 million units, the lowest recorded volume since Q1 2009.
“Despite the decline, PC shipment in the United States declined at a slower rate than all other regions in first quarter, outperforming worldwide trends for the eleventh consecutive quarter. The strength from key vendors, adoption of emerging products, improvements in the consumer market and in the broader economy are all positive signals,” said Rajani Singh, Senior Research Analyst, Personal Computing. “The upcoming launch of Windows 10 will consolidate the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. In addition to the free upgrade for consumers for a year after the release, Windows 10 should be a net positive as there is pent-up demand for replacements of older PCs. Only part of the installed base needs to replace systems to keep the overall growth rate above zero for rest of the year.”
In the upcoming quarters, growth is expected to be centered in portables, particularly around emerging product categories such as Windows with Bing, Ultraslims and Convertibles.
Source: IDC
