We are almost midway through 2018 Q2 and the 2018 Q1 PC sales numbers were meh. The good news is that IDC called the PC market flat. That’s good news because they had predicted a 1.5% decrease for the quarter. IDC reports worldwide 60.4 million PC’s sold in the January-to-March period driven mostly by businesses moving to Windows 10.
Gartner (IT) is less meh and more blah. Gartner saw slightly more PC’s shipped in 2018 Q1 at 61.7 million units for a 1.4% decline. The PC market experienced a 14th consecutive quarter of decline, dating back to the second quarter of 2012.
Gartner Principal Analyst Ms. Mikako Kitagawa affixed the blame primarily to the Chinese market. “The major contributor to the decline came from China, where unit shipments declined 5.7 percent year over year.” Ms.Kitagawa continued, “This was driven by China’s business market, where some state-owned and large enterprises postponed new purchases or upgrades, awaiting new policies and officials’ reassignments after the session of the National People’s Congress in early March.”
The top three Gartner vendors — Dell, HP, and Lenovo — accounted for 56.9% of global PC shipments in Q1 of 2018. Up slightly compared with 54.5% of shipments in Q1 of 2017. Dell experienced the strongest growth rate among the top six vendors worldwide, as its shipments increased 6.5%.
HP‘s (HPQ) worldwide PC shipments increased 2.8% in the first quarter of 2018 versus the same period last year. In EMEA, HP Inc. recorded double-digit growth in both desktop and mobile PCs. Gartner says HP Inc. was adversely affected by declining demand in the U.S., which generally accounts for one-third of its total shipments.
Lenovo’s (LNVGY) global PC shipments remained flat in the first quarter of 2018. Lenovo achieved 6 percent growth in EMEA and double-digit shipment growth in Latin America. However, in Asia/Pacific (its largest market), PC shipments declined 4 percent.
After record holiday sales for consumer and gaming products in the fourth quarter of 2017, Dell continued to do well in the first quarter of 2018. With double-digit shipment increases in EMEA, North America, and Latin America, Dell grew in all regions except Asia/Pacific. Desktop and mobile PCs grew in equal measures, showing Dell’s strength in the business segment according to Gartner.
In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 11.8 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 2.9% decrease from the first quarter of 2017 according to Gartner. Dell moved into the No. 1 position in the U.S. based on shipments, as its market share increased to 29.1%. HP Inc. moved into second place as its shipments declined 4.8%, and its market share totaled 28.4%in the first quarter of 2018.
2018 Q1 - Gartner Global PC Shipments
| Company | 2018 Q1 Shipments | 2018 Q1 Market Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Dell | 3,440 | 29.1 |
| HP Inc. | 3,363 | 28.4 |
| Lenovo | 1,632 | 13.8 |
| Apple | 1,491 | 12.6 |
| Acer Group | 321 | 2.7 |
| Others | 1,586 | 13.4 |
| Total | 11,833 | 100.0 |
PC shipments in EMEA totaled 18.6 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 1.7% increase. driven by Enterprise shipments increased as many Windows 10 projects and the fast approach of the compliance deadline for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe.
PC shipments in Asia/Pacific totaled 21.9 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 3.9% decline from the first quarter of 2017. As previously mentioned, the PC market in China drove the decline in Asia/Pacific.
IDC says the U.S. market saw a promising opening quarter for the year with almost all major vendors reporting increases in notebook sales. Overall, total PC shipments for 2018 Q1 stood at 13.5 million units.
IDC reports that HP Inc. maintained a comfortable lead over all others in the market with its eighth consecutive quarter of overall growth (up 4.3% year on year) and growth in all regions except Latin America.
Lenovo saw a flat quarter in 2018 Q1, the third consecutive quarter in which the company saw year-on-year volume stabilize with flat global growth and a slower pace of decline in the U.S. Dell Inc. posted the strongest year-on-year growth out of all the major companies, growing 6.4% and buoyed by strong performances in nearly every region.
Acer (TPE:2353) held onto fourth place. Its ongoing expansion into gaming and continued investments in Chromebooks have paid dividends for the company but also caused some tough going in other areas. Apple (AAPL) finished the quarter in fifth place with a year-on-year decline in shipments of 4.8%.
2018 Q1 - IDC Global PC Shipments
| Company | 2018 Q1 Shipments | 2018 Q1 Market Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| HP Inc. | 13,676 | 22.6 |
| Lenovo | 12,305 | 20.4 |
| Dell Inc. | 10,190 | 16.9 |
| Acer Group | 4,085 | 6.8 |
| Apple | 4,000 | 6.6 |
| Others | 16,128 | 26.7 |
| Total | 60,383 | 100.0 |
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PC’s used to be a leading indicator of the health of the tech sector. That is not the case anymore. Economic stress has lengthened the life span of PCs from 3 years to nearly 5 years in many firms and even longer in the home market. Increased smartphones capability and cloud-based applications and storage have taken another bite out of the PC market.
But looking into the tea leaves, many think PCs are on the rebound. Driving the PC market is a demand for premium notebooks in the mainstream and commercial markets. Gaming systems are also part of the equation. IDC expects overall smartphone shipments to decline by 0.2% in 2018 after falling 0.3% last year, the thought is that those dollars would be used to upgrade their PCs.
Mmmm – we’ll see. I say not likely. Can you say “new normal?”
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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