PC Market Isn't Out Of The Woods; Apple's Sour Statistics

PC shipments have been on the wane for the eighth consecutive quarter, marking the longest duration of decline in the history of the PC industry.

A release on market research firm Gartner's quarterly PC tracker survey showed that third quarter PC shipments fell 5.7 percent year-over-year, a faster rate of decline than the 5.2 percent drop in the second quarter.

False Dawn In Q2?

Earlier in July this year, Gartner indicated that PC shipments may be reaching the inflection point amid signs of life in the North American market, which saw the first increase in five quarters. At that time, Gartner noted small signs of improvement. In the third quarter, however, North American shipments fell 0.3 percent.

Weakness All Around

Third-quarter statistics indicated that the challenges faced by the industry were broad based, with weak back-to-school demand and the ongoing low demand in the consumer market, especially in emerging markets, conniving to plot the downfall. In the emerging markets, consumers are gravitating more toward smartphones and "phablets."

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Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner said, "According to our 2016 personal technology survey, the majority of consumers own, and use, at least three different types of devices in mature markets. Among these devices, the PC is not a high priority device for the majority of consumers, so they do not feel the need to upgrade their PCs as often as they used to. Some may never decide to upgrade to a PC again."

Regionally, North America, Asia/Pacific and EMEA all saw year-over-year shipment declines.

Consolidation Going Strong

Gartner's survey revealed that the PC market is now dominated by the top six vendors, who accounted for a record 78 percent of the shipments in the third quarter.

HP Inc HPQ Snatches Share, Grows Volume

Worldwide, HP's shipments grew 2.3 percent year-over-year to 14,058, with market share rising 1.6 percentage points to 20.4. This also bettered the second quarter statistics of 19.1 percent stake in the market.

Lenovo Leads But Slips On Volumes

Lenovo saw its market rise modestly to 20.9 percent from 20.2 percent last year but saw shipments tumble 2.4 percent.

Apple Inc. AAPL Bleeds On Volumes, Market Share

Apple saw its market share slip to 7.2 percent from 7.8 percent in the year-ago period, thanks to a 13.4 percent slump in shipments. Among others, Dell and Asus put in a positive show on market share and volumes, while Acer saw its market share and volumes decline notably.

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