Shipment of world PCs shrink as Lenovo leads market – Report

Shipping of personal computers worldwide has dropped to 76 million units in the second quarter of 2013, according to the lastest industry report.

According to preliminary results by US technology firm, Gartner, the shipment was a 10.9% decrease from the same period last year, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of declining shipments.

The results showed that current fall in shipment was the longest duration of decline in the PC market’s history as all regions showed a decline compared to a year ago.

“The fall in the Asia/Pacific PC market continued, showing five consecutive quarters of the shipment decline, while the EMEA PC market registered two consecutive quarters of double-digit decline,” Gartner said July 10, 2013.

“We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets,” said Mikako Kitagawa, Principal analyst at Gartner.

Kitagawa noted that inexpensive tablets in emerging markets have become the first computing device for many people thus “accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market”.

Meanwhile, Lenovo overtook HP as the market leader in PC shipment as Gartner described their competition as “neck-and-neck”. “This time, Lenovo was back in the top position by only a small difference in share,” it added.

Lenovo shipped 12,677,265 units representing 16.7% of market share as against HP’s 12,402,887 representing 16.3%.

By Ekow Quandzie