Worldwide PC shipments totaled 90.3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 4.9 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2011, according to preliminary results by Gartner. According to researchers, tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by ‘cannibalising’ PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs.
During the holiday season, consumers no longer viewed PCs as the number one gift item. Given a burgeoning variety of increasingly more attractive devices and services, consumers directed their attention elsewhere. The analysts said there was uptake of very low priced notebooks as a part of holiday deals, but this uptake did little to boost holiday PC sales.
The launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 did not have a significant impact on PC shipments in the fourth quarter. Gartner said some PC vendors offered somewhat lackluster form factors in their Windows 8 offerings and missed the excitement of touch. New products are coming to market, and this could drive churn within the installed base, the researchers believe.
HP regained the top position in worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2012 with 14.645 million units and a market share of 16.2 percent, and was ahead of Lenovo, Dell, Acer and Asus. However, the company’s shipments did not grow compared to a year ago. Gartner said HP most likely gave up a certain margin level to gain market shares. HP was successful in managing large retail deals targeting Microsoft’s Windows 8 launch and holiday sales in selected regions.
Lenovo dropped to the second position in the fourth quarter of 2012, but it experienced the best growth rate (8.2 percent) among the top five PC vendors worldwide. Lenovo’s growth exceeded regional growth rates in North America, EMEA and Asia/Pacific, but was lower than the industry average in Latin America and Japan. In North America, Lenovo performed well by expanding in the retail market and protecting professional market share.
In the US, PC shipments totaled 17.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 2.1 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2011. Due to the tight inventory control and preparation for the Windows 8 launch, most PC vendors were able to ship Windows 8 PCs to the retail space. However, PC sell-through was rather weak which leaves some level of inventory concerns for vendors in the consumer market, according to the same research.
