Worldwide PC shipments Saw A Year-On-Year Decline Of 2.4% And Lenovo Still Maintains Its No.1 Position In The Market

According to the International Data Corporation, Worldwide PC shipments totaled 80.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), a year-on-year decline of -2.4%. Also, this was the first time PC shipments reached above 80 million mark in 2014. On the whole, 2014 shipments totaled 308.6 million units, down -2.1% from the prior year. Lenovo remained the top vendor while HP posted an impressive growth to almost regain its No.1 position.

“The strength from market leaders, as well as improvement in Asia/Pacific and the consumer market more generally, are positive signs for the PC market,” said Loren Loverde, IDC Vice President, Worldwide PC Tracker. “Growth of Chrome, Bing, all-in-ones, ultraslim, convertibles, and touch systems similarly make PCs more compelling and competitive. Nevertheless, some of the gains are relatively small, and weakening drivers like Bing promotions and end of XP support transitions, cast a shadow of doubt on the strength of the market going into 2015.”

“The U.S. PC market continued to grow in the fourth quarter, outperforming the global market for the tenth consecutive quarter. The past year was supported by Windows XP to 7 migrations in the commercial segment while consumer volume continued to decline,” said Rajani Singh, Senior Research Analyst, Personal Computing. “Moving forward, the U.S. PC market should see flat to slightly positive growth. The U.S. consumer PC market will finally move to positive growth in 2015, strengthened by the slowdown in the tablet market, vendor and OEM efforts to rejuvenate the PC market, the launch of Window 10, and replacement of older PCs.”

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide PC Shipments, Fourth Quarter 2014 (Preliminary) (Shipments are in thousands of units)