The Strategist

Decrease of PC sales slows down in Q2



07/14/2017 - 18:26



In the second quarter of 2017, PC sales declined for the 11th consecutive time - by 4.3%, to 61.1 million units. Chinese company Lenovo, which remained the largest producer for four years, lost the leadership to American HP - their market shares were 20.8% and 19.9% respectively. The decrease in PC sales during this period was influenced by growing prices of components, in connection with which some users decided to postpone purchase of a new computer.



Santeri Viinamäki
Santeri Viinamäki
Research company Gartner says that shipments of personal computers (PCs) worldwide decreased by 4.3%, to 61.1 million in the second quarter. Thus, PC shipments have been down for the 11th consecutive quarter. Sales in the second quarter were the lowest since 2007. Moreover, the rate of decline in sales began to slow: the decline in the first and second quarters amounted to 9.6% and 5.2% in the year of 2016, and reached only 2.4% and 4.3% in the current year. 

HP took the first place in the race of PC sales, thus outperforming the former leader Lenovo. HP sold 12.7 million computers in the second quarter, its market share was 20.8%. Unlike other PC manufacturers, HP sales have been growing for the fifth consecutive quarter - now they have climbed up by 3.3%. The second place is taken by Lenovo with 19.9%  (12.2 million), and next come Dell (15.6%), Apple (6.9%) and Asus (6.6%). As for the regions, PC sales fell by 5.7% in the US, by 3.5% - in Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA), and by 5.1% in Asia.

Gartner’s analysts say that decline in PC sales in the second quarter was further promoted by rising prices. "Higher PC prices, explained by to a lack of components such as DRAM, SSD hard drives and liquid crystal displays, have had a negative impact on PC demand in the second quarter of 2017. The approach to increasing the cost of components differs from the company to the company. Some decided to bear the cost of increasing component prices without increasing the final product’s price, while other manufacturers pawned these costs at the final price", said Gartner’s senior analyst Mikako Kitagawa. According to her, the greatest impact was noticed in retail, not corporate PC sales - many consumers decided to postpone the update of a computer due to the price hike.

source: nasdaq.com