Market researchers: PC market continues to shrink

By admin On Jul 10, 2015

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Figures from market researchers Gartner and IDC show that the PC market declined again in the second quarter. According to IDC, Apple is the only manufacturer to grow; the rest of the PC manufacturers gave up considerably. Manufacturers would suffer from the ‘Windows XP effect’, among other things.

In the second quarter of 2015, Apple sold 5.1 million PCs, 16.1 percent more than a year earlier, according to IDC. Gartner does not have Apple in the top five and therefore estimates deliveries under 4.55 million. The possible growth of Apple is therefore immediately all the good news that can be reported about the PC market: for the rest, sales fell. Acer in particular supplied considerably fewer PCs: no less than a quarter. This is evident from figures that research agency IDC has put online. Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer and Asus also sold fewer PCs.

Overall, PC sales fell 11.8 percent to 66.1 million, according to IDC. According to competitor market researcher Gartner, the PC market fell 9.5 percent to 68.4 million. Gartner also recorded losses on all fronts: from 20.2 percent loss for Acer to 4.9 percent loss for Dell.

Lenovo remains relatively the largest PC seller, according to both market researchers, although HP is hot on its heels. Apple is currently the fourth PC manufacturer, according to IDC, although the distance to Asus and Acer is not too great.

The PC market has been in bad shape for years. Market analysts at IDC and Gartner expect it to pick up a bit with the release of Windows 10; Potential PC buyers may be waiting for that new version of Windows to come out until they buy a new PC. By the way, Windows 7 and 8 users can also upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

Furthermore, the PC market would suffer from the ‘Windows XP effect’; last year companies exchanged Windows XP systems for newer equivalents, Gartner contemplates, but now all those systems have largely been replaced and deliveries are again falling.

The estimates of IDC and Gartner are ahead of the quarterly figures of the various manufacturers. Some manufacturers also disclose exactly how many PCs they have supplied. The data from the research firms has been giving a good picture of the trends in PC sales for years before manufacturers release quarterly figures.