Despite the debate about whether the world is entering a post-PC era, information technology research and advisory company, Gartner, has reported that worldwide PC sales have in fact grown by 3.2% in the third quarter of this year.

 

The company elaborated that 91.8 million PCs had been shipped in the third quarter of the year, a 3.2% increase from the third quarter of last year. However, the outlook for PCs is still not completely rosy.  
Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, explained that back-to-school PC sales were disappointing in mature markets, which confirmed that “the consumer PC market continues to be weak.”

 

As has been largely suspected, he added that the popularity of non-PC devices, including media tablets, such as the iPad and smartphones, took consumers' spending away from PCs.

 

Additionally, as the PC market faced a slowdown, vendor consolidation had become a more apparent trend in the industry, according to Kitagawa. “Lenovo's recent merger with NEC, and its acquisition of Medion, as well as HP's announcement that it may spin off or sell its PC business, underlined this trend during the quarter," he said.

 

 

Despite this, HP, which remained the number one vendor based on global PC shipments, grew faster than the industry average, and its market share reached 17.7% in the third quarter of 2011. The company reported that HP also experienced strong growth in the US, but internationally, its growth was relatively weak or average.

 

Lenovo became the second-largest PC vendor in the worldwide market for the first time, leapfrogging Dell. According to Gartner, the company's expansion was boosted in part by its merger with NEC in Japan. However, its aggressive marketing to both the professional and consumer PC markets accelerated its shipment volume.

 

The company continued that Dell's performance, meanwhile was below the industry average in most regions, as the company faced intensified competition in the professional space, where Dell has been traditionally strong. Acer mostly cleared its inventory buildup in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while Asus widened the gap with Toshiba, the sixth-largest vendor, achieving strong growth in China.

 

The company reported that Apple experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors in the US PC market, increasing 21.5% in the third quarter of 2011, with the MacBook Air leading Apple’s computer growth in the US.

 

According to Gartner, the top six PC manufacturers worldwide at present are:

1. HP,

2. Lenovo,

3. Dell,

4. Acer,

5. Asus,

6. Toshiba.