Worldwide PC Shipments in Q3, 2014 Down 0.5% YoY: Gartner

Taiwanese personal computer (PC) vendors Acer and ASUS continued to retain No. 4 and No. 5 positions, respectively, in worldwide PC shipments globally. While in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, the two Taiwanese brands were the No. 3 and No. 4 by pulling ahead Dell.

Worldwide PC shipments reached 79.4 million units in Q3, 2014, down 0.5% year-on-year (YoY), according to preliminary results by Gartner Inc., an information technology research and advisory company.

“Growth in the mature markets was offset by a decline in shipments in emerging markets, similar to what was seen in the second quarter of 2014,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Positive results in Western Europe and North America can be a sign of gradual recovery for the PC industry."

“Consumers' attention is slowly going back to PC purchases as tablet adoption peaked with mainstream consumers. The transition from PCs to tablets has faded as tablet penetration has reached the 40-50 percent range.” In contrast, weakness in the emerging market reflects the saturation in selected consumer segments where they can afford PCs. In the meantime, consumers who don't have PCs will likely buy low priced tablet. This is a one of the major reasons for the slow growth in PC shipments in the emerging market.

For the first time, the sum of the top five vendors' share reached two-thirds of the worldwide PC shipments. All top five vendors showed stronger growth compared to the industry average. Scale is one important success criterion for vendors to survive in the PC market. Some vendors have already scaled back or have withdrawn from the PC business — namely, Sony and Samsung — and in the third quarter of 2014 Toshiba also announced plans to restructure its PC division.

Lenovo extended its position as the worldwide leader in PC shipments, as it accounted for 19.8% of the market in Q3, 2014. Lenovo did especially well in EMEA as it achieved more than 40% YoY growth. It also had YoY growth in Asia/Pacific, despite the region showing a decline overall. While its overall growth rate slightly declined in PC shipments, HP was able to post single-digit growth to maintain the No. 2 position worldwide. HP was the No. 1 vendor in EMEA and the U.S.

In the U.S. market, PC shipments totaled 16.6 million units in Q3, a 4.2% YoY increase, being the third quarter in a row with positive shipment growth.

Shipments in EMEA totaled 24 million units in the period, a 9.6% YoY increase. After two years of declining quarterly market share, the EMEA PC market has recorded growth every quarter since the start of 2014.

In Asia/Pacific, PC shipments surpassed 26.2 million units in  Q3, a 5.3% YoY decline. The market remained challenging, especially in China where the PC purchasing appetite has slowed due to more pragmatic consumer and government IT spending.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for Q3, 2014  (Units)
Company	Q3 '14 Shipments	Q3 '14 Market Share (%)	Q3 '13 Shipments	Q3 '13 Market Share (%)	Q3 '13-Q3 '14 Growth (%)
Lenovo	15,703,391	19.8	14,090,273	17.7	11.4
HP	14,214,195	17.9	13,621,160	17.1	4.4
Dell	10,185,964	12.8	9,286,002	11.6	9.7
Acer Group	6,830,009	8.6	6,265,167	7.9	9.0
Asus	5,768,120	7.3	4,936,206	6.2	16.9
Others	26,684,880	33.6	31,595,900	39.6	-15.5
Total	79,386,559	100.0	79,794,707	100.0	-0.5
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs, including x86 tablets equipped with Windows 8, but excludes Chromebooks and other tablets. Source: Gartner (October 2014)