14 DAY TRIAL // It’s no surprise that the PC industry is collapsing, and the latest quarter does not bring any difference, with IDC data showing that worldwide PC shipments declined 3.9 percent in Q3 2016.
This means that PC shipments totaled 68 million units during the quarter, but although this is another decline year-on-year, it’s actually 3.2 percent ahead of projections, meaning that the drop has slowed down and there are hopes for a recovery in the next calendar year.
IDC says that partly responsible for the better than expected results is the competition among the market leaders, as Lenovo, HP, and Dell have all brought new devices to the market and tried to appeal to more customer sectors, including both consumers and enterprises.
Lenovo continues to be the leading manufacturer with 14.5 million sold units and a market share of 21.3 percent, a small improvement over 21.2 percent in the same quarter of the previous year, while HP is the runner-up with 14.3 million and a share of 21.2 percent, up from 19.7 percent.
Apple only fourth
Apple is only fourth this quarter with 5 million sold units and a market share of 7.4 percent, down from the 8.1 percent the same quarter in 2015, while ASUS is very close with almost 4.7 million units and 6.9 percent share.
“We are very pleased to see some improvement in the market,” said Loren Loverde, vice president, Worldwide PC Trackers & Forecasting. “Industry efforts to update products to leverage new processors and operating systems, to deliver a better computing experience encompassing more mobile, secure, and faster systems, and to accelerate PC replacements have been critical. These improvements are accumulating, and set the stage for a stronger market going forward.”
Stronger sales are also expected this quarter thanks to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holiday season, but IDC says that some improvements might actually come next year. As a result, it’s still too early to talk about a long-term recovery despite these better than expected results.