Gartner: Windows OEMs Continue To Struggle With Selling PCs, Observed 9.6% Decline In Q1 2016

Windows 10 doesn’t seem to be changing the fate of the PC industry, at least when it comes to the shipment figures. According to the latest numbers, the first quarter of 2016, which ended in March, saw a decline of 9.6 percent.

Marketing and research firm Gartner reports a an all-time low in Q1 2016, in which all the PC OEMs collectively sold, less than 65 million units worldwide, observing a steep decline of 9.6 percent. This is the sixth consecutive quarter in which the PC industry has observed a slow in sales.

“The deterioration of local currencies against the U.S. dollar continued to play a major role in PC shipment declines. Our early results also show there was an inventory buildup from holiday sales in the fourth quarter of 2015,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

“All major regions showed year-over-year shipment declines, with Latin America showing the steepest drop, where PC shipments declined 32.4 percent. The Latin American PC market was intensely impacted by Brazil, where the problematic economy and political instability adversely affected the market.

“The ongoing decline in U.S. PC shipments showed that the installed base is still shrinking, a factor that played across developed economies. Low oil prices drove economic contraction in Latin America and Russia, changing them from drivers of growth to market laggards.”

Lenovo remains the top OEM, shipping around 12,484 thousands of units in the Q1 2016 — observing a 7.2 decline in the shipment figure. HP assumed the second position with 11,408 thousands of inventory move, and Dell secured the third spot with 9,145 thousand of units sold. HP observed a decline of 0.4 percent, whereas Dell, in comparison, only observed a 0.4 percent drop. In fact, among the top Windows OEMs, only Asus, with 5,365 thousands of units shipment, observed a 1.5 growth in the sales number. Apple, which sells MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini and other computing lineups, observed a 1 percent growth in selling 4,611 thousands of units.