Global PC market stabilises in Q318

The global market has shown modest stability for two consecutive quarters when it comes to worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments. Shipment volumes hit 67.2 million units in Q318, a 0.1% increase Q317, according to preliminary results by Gartner.

EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan experienced growth in Q318 however, with the declines from the US and Latin America.

“The PC market continued to be driven by steady corporate PC demand, which was driven by Windows 10 PC hardware upgrades. We expect the Windows 10 upgrade cycle to continue through 2020 at which point the upgrade demand will diminish,” said Mikako Kitagawa, Principal Analyst at Gartner.

“Despite the third quarter typically showing strong consumer PC sales due to the back-to-school season, weakness in consumer PC demand continued, offsetting the strong sales in the business market.”

“Although the third-quarter results did not show any material impact, the Intel CPU shortage could influence the PC market moving forward with price increases and changes to the vendor landscape. While this shortage will have some short-term impacts, Gartner does not see any lasting impact on overall PC demand.

"Current expectation is that the shortage will continue into 2019, but Intel will prioritise the high-end CPU as well as the CPUs for business PCs. In the meantime, AMD will pick up the part of the market where Intel cannot supply CPUs.”

Lenovo secured the top spot in the worldwide PC market with growth of 10.7%, driven by regained traction in the commercial market and its joint venture with Fujitsu*. HP dropped to the second position, but recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment growth. HP showed strong desktop shipment growth, which indicated strong demand among corporate buyers.

Dell experienced its 10th consecutive quarter of shipment growth, with growth of 5.3% in the third quarter of 2018. Dell did well in EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan, showing growth in both desktop and mobile PCs in these regions.

PC shipments in Asia Pacific totalled 24.3 million units, a 0.3% increase from the third quarter of 2017. PC demand from the commercial segment buoyed the market. Though the consumer segment continued to be challenging in terms of unit sales, demand remained at the mid-range to premium price points, signaling purchases from consumers who look for features, functions and quality built for specific needs. Shipments in China grew 0.8% in Q318, showing a continued gradual recovery from a steady decline over the past few quarters.

These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region programme.

   Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for Q318 (Thousands of units)

Company	Q318 Shipments	Q318 Market Share (%)	Q317 Shipments	Q317 Market Share (%)	Q318-Q317 Growth (%)
Lenovo*	15,889	23.6	14,357	21.4	10.7
HP Inc.	14,629	21.8	13,773	20.5	6.2
Dell	10,737	16.0	10,200	15.2	5.3
Apple	4,928	7.3	5,385	8.0	-8.5
Acer Group	4,074	6.1	4,322	6.4	-5.7
Asus	4,013	6.0	4,774	7.1	-15.9
Others	12,934	19.2	14,345	21.4	-9.8
Total	67,206	100.0	67,156	100.0	0.1

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.

*Lenovo's results include Fujitsu's units starting in Q218 to reflect the joint venture that closed in May 2018.

Source: Gartner (October 2018)