Lenovo Overtakes Apple In The US PC Shipments As Global PC Shipments Remains Almost Flat YoY

Gartner today released their Worldwide PC shipments report which revealed that total shipments were 75.8 million units in the second quarter of 2014, a 0.1 percent increase from the second quarter of 2013. This should be a good news for OEMs as PC shipments have increased after eight quarters of declining shipments. This is due to the stabilization in developed markets was offset by a decline in emerging markets.

“The PC market’s installed based has been declining as buyers switched to tablets and smartphones for entertainment and social media consumption. The 2Q14 results suggest that the consumer installed base restructuring peaked during 2013. We are seeing a slowdown in premium tablet sales, which have already penetrated a large number of households. PCs are now growing off a smaller installed base of newer devices, with more engaged users. Therefore, we expect to see slow, but consistent, PC growth. While the end of support for Windows XP drove some of the sales in developed markets, it is the underlying business replacement cycle that will stabilize the market.”

In the US, Lenovo has become the No.3 PC OEM pushing Apple behind. In fact, Apple is the only PC vendor in the Top 5 which saw decrease in shipments.

In the U.S. market, PC shipments totaled 15.9 million units in the second quarter of 2014, a 7.4 percent increase from the second quarter of last year. This was the second consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment growth. Both desktop and notebook PCs exhibited an increase in shipments.

“The consumer PC market also started picking up in the U.S. The availability of affordable, thin and light notebooks have drawn consumers’ attention,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “Touch enable devices are also widely available with decreasing price premiums compared to a year ago. The price premium is low enough for mainstream consumers to spend the extra money for the additional functionalities, such as touch.”

Read the full report from the link below.

Source: Gartner