PC deliveries fall again in Q1 2019

The global PC market shrank again in the first quarter of 2019, by 4.6 percent. Although the figures for 2018 were not too bad, there does not appear to be a recovery. According to analysts, the decrease is partly due to CPU shortages.

Gartner speaks of a decrease of 4.6 percent and IDC keeps it at 3 percent. The two do agree that the total amount of PCs shipped in the past quarter amounted to 58.5 million units. Last year in the same time period, that number was still around 60 million PCs.

According to the analysts, the shortage of CPUs lies with Intel; yields on its new 10nm process are not yet good enough to meet demand, so it decided to invest further in its existing 14nm production. The shortages of Intel processors led to price increases, which, combined with strong demand from migrations to Windows 10, are proving problematic.

HP and Lenovo are still battling for the lead. Gartner puts Lenovo at the top, while IDC puts HP there. In any case, the companies have a market share of 22 or 23 percent. Dell follows with about 18 percent and Apple follows in fourth place with 6.8 percent. Of these companies, Lenovo experienced decent growth, according to Gartner even 6.9 percent compared to the first quarter of 2019. The rest remained relatively stable. However, one of the finalists, Acer, saw its market share shrink by 13 percent.