The PC market keeps dropping, new research shows

May 10, 2016 08:43 GMT  ·  By

The PC market seems to be suffering a decline that nobody can stop, not even Apple, despite the fact that the company has remained the leader of this business in Q1 2016.

But while Apple actually maintained its leading position in the charts, the company suffered a drop as well, analyst firm Canalys revealed, adding that Cupertino suffered a drop of no less than 17 percent versus the same quarter of 2015.

PC shipments totaled 101 million units in the first quarter of this year, a drop of 13 percent versus the same period of 2015 and thus declining to what the analyst firm calls “the lowest point since Q2 2011.”

Nothing seems to be able to stop the decline of the PC market and Canalys says that Lenovo, the runner-up in the charts, shipped 25,000 units less than Apple, with a significant drop recorded too. China was one of the markets where Lenovo recorded dropping sales, the research shows.

2-in-1s still doing well

It’s worth mentioning that Canalys counts as PCs desktops, notebooks, 2-in-1s, and tablets, and this is one of the reasons why Apple continues to lead this market. The iPad is still selling well, and Canalys says that 2-in-1 devices were of particular interest during the quarter, as they recorded an increase of 13 percent.

This was pretty much the only category that actually improved its figures, while tablets are at the opposite pole with a drop of 15 percent.

“The global PC market had a bad start to 2016 and it is difficult to see any bright spots for vendors in the coming quarters. The tablet boom has faded in the distance and the market is fully mature. Global shipments declines are expected to continue unless vendors bring transformational innovation to the market,” Tim Coulling, Canalys senior analyst, said.

Microsoft and Apple are the only two companies that are still performing well these days, pretty much because of 2-in-1 devices such as Surface and the iPad Pro. But Canalys notes that these models are still expensive and record rather slow sales in developing markets, so continued decline is expected to be recorded until other companies step in with more affordable alternatives.