Worldwide PC shipments fell by 6.7 percent year-on-year to around 68.5 million units in the first quarter, according to the latest data from IDC. Although the drop in sales is slightly ahead of IDC’s earlier predictions for the quarter, it still represents the lowest recorded volume since the first quarter of 2009. The results contrasts with a strong second half of 2014 and can be attributed to inventory build-up of Windows Bing based notebooks, commercial slowdown following the XP refresh and constrained demand in many regions due to currency fluctuations and unfavorable economic indicators, said IDC.
On a geographic basis, PC sales in the US declined at a slower rate than all other regions in first quarter, outperforming worldwide trends for the eleventh consecutive quarter. Total shipments came in at 14.2 million PCs in the first quarter 2015, down 1.0 percent from the same quarter a year ago. PC shipments in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) also contracted in the first quarter, as vendors focused on depleting attractively priced Bing inventory built up during the last quarter of 2014, said IDC.
In Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) volume was close to expectations as scaled-back IT spending due to the ongoing currency fluctuation hit many countries in the region. Sales in Japan plummeted by 44 percent compared to a strong first quarter of 2014, with weak Yen further dampening purchasing across segments.
In terms of vendors, Lenovo continued to lead the way with PC sales rising 3.4 percent to 13.4 million units (19.6% market share), followed by HP, which increased sales 3.3 percent to 13.0 million (19.0% share), helped by resilient growth in the US and EMEA. Dell was down 6.3 percent year-on-year to 9.2 million (13.5% share), while Acer remained in fourth position with 4.8 million units sold (7.1% market share), tied with Asus, which rose 4.4 percent year-on-year to also sell 4.8 million units (7.0% market share) thanks above all to growth in Asia.
