According to the latest figures from Gartner, the global PC market has not yet managed to pull the parachute rip cord to stop the freefall it has been in for over a year now. For the sixth consecutive quarter worldwide PC shipments have declined, totaling 80.3 million units during Q3 2013, which represents a 8.6% year-on-year decline.

Gartner stated that HP and Lenovo have been neck and neck for the top global position in the PC market during the last few quarters, adding that Lenovo knocked HP off the top spot last quarter. Lenovo accounted for 17.6% of global PC shipments in Q3 2013 whilst HP managed  17.1% of shipments.

Weakness in the Chinese market continues to affect Lenovo’s overall growth. However, the market research firm asserts that strong growth in the Americas and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) has done much to offset this declining PC shipments for Lenovo in the Asia/Pacific market.

HP on the other hand recorded positive shipment growth during Q3 2013 for the first time since Q1 2013. With the exception of South America, HP’s growth was higher than the average industry growth across all regions.

Rest of the PC OEMs

Like HP, Dell’s PC shipments also exceeded the growth rate averages for the industry across all regions.

Acer’s shipments, however, declined 22.6% year-on-year which Gartner attributes to a reduction in the company’s netbook shipments. Acer has heavily sought opportunities in other device markets including tablets.  

Also hitting the down button on the PC shipment elevator is Asus, which saw its PC shipments drop by 22.5%. As with Acer, Asus has also shifted a great deal of its attention to the mobile device market, with the result being that Asus’ tablet shipments were nearly equal to its mobile PC shipments during Q3 2013.

Source: Gartner 

Regional outlook

PC shipments in EMEA totaled 22.4 million units in Q3 2013, representing a 13.7% year-on-year decline. Just like the worldwide PC industry as a whole, the EMEA region suffered its sixth consecutive quarter of declining PC shipments.

All areas within this region including Western Europe, Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East and Africa, all experienced a shipment drop. PC shipments across all of Eastern Europe remained weak due to the ongoing popularity of tablets and the weakening of the Russian ruble against the euro and US dollar, which led to a PC price increase in that subregion.

In Asia/Pacific, PC shipments totaled 28.1 million units in Q3 2013, amounting to a 11.2% year-on-year decline. PC sales in this region were hampered by currency volatilities, especially in India and Indonesia, where currencies plunged to record lows, Gartner said. Various PC vendors also held back on new orders because they are waiting for the arrival of Windows 8.1 as well as new models based on Intel’s Bay Trail processors that will start shipping in the following quarter.

According to Gartner, PC shipments in the US market totaled 16.1 million units in Q3 2013, which is a 3.5% year-on-year increase. This is actually the second consecutive quarter of growth for the Stateside PC market. Low inventory from the first half of 2013, plus the introduction of new models with Intel’s fourth generation Core (Haswell) CPUs, and new form factors brought the sell-in shipment up from levels experienced within Q3 2012.

To the point

Besides the gloomy Q3 2013 PC shipment results, Gartner said that the worst might be over for the industry, at least in the most important regional market - the US.

Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner stated that, “the Q3 2013 results imply the US market may have passed the worst declining stage, which started in 2010. The shrinking installed base of PCs has also passed the steepest decline phase because the structural change has progressed fairly quickly. Tablets will continue to impact the PC market, but the US PC market will see a more moderate decrease rather than a steep decline in the next two years.”

In related news, Acer recently unleashed fresh strategies for the commercial market along with an invigorating new message for its channel partners in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.