Lenovo continued to be ranked first in the worldwide personal computer (PC) market and has widened its share over HP Inc.
Lenovo, HP Inc and Dell accounted for nearly 65 per cent of PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019, up from just more than 61 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Barring the Asia-Pacific region, Lenovo recorded year-over-year growth in all regions. The firm witnessed a growth of over 30 per cent in PC shipments in the US.
The calendar year saw shipment of 261 million PCs, witnessing a growth of under one per cent. Research and advisory firm Gartner said the number of PC shipments in the calendar year 2019 witnessed a growth rate of 0.6 per cent.
The fourth quarter, however, shrugged off the negative sentiment, witnessed a growth of 2.3 per cent in PC shipments, clocking 70.6 million units in the quarter.
“The PC market experienced growth for the first time since 2011, driven by vibrant business demand for Windows 10 upgrades, particularly in the US, EMEA (Europe, Middle-East and Asia) and Japan,” Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner, has said.
Good news is that the research expects this growth to continue through this year even after Windows 7 support comes to an end this month.
“Many businesses in emerging regions such as China, Eurasia and the emerging Asia-Pacific have not yet upgraded,” Mikako Kitagawa said.
Though the demand for consumer PC is weak, increased demand for business PC has led to unit growth in five of the last seven quarters.
“The ongoing Intel CPU shortage, which began mid-last year, became a major issue again on PC delivery to enterprise customers by the top three vendors. Without this shortage, shipments would have grown faster than the reported results,” she said.
“The fourth quarter is typically a strong buying season for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) that want to maximise their spending before the tax year ends,” Kitagawa said.
Source: The Hindu
