Gartner Says PC Market in Asia Pacific and Worldwide Showed Only Slight Growth in the Third Quarter of 2018
Announcement posted by Gartner 11 Oct 2018
CPU Shortage Could Bring New Challenges to PC Market, but Won’t Impact Demand
Worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments totaled 67.2 million units in the third quarter of 2018, a 0.1 percent increase from the third quarter of 2017, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. The global market has shown modest stability for two consecutive quarters.
EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan experienced growth in the third quarter of 2018, while the U.S. and Latin America declined. Latin America showed the steepest decline of 8.5 percent after showing some stabilization earlier in 2018. However, these results are in line with Gartner’s expectations in view of CPU supply constraints for the rest of the year.
“The PC market continued to be driven by steady corporate PC demand, which was driven by Windows 10 PC hardware upgrades. We expect the Windows 10 upgrade cycle to continue through 2020 at which point the upgrade demand will diminish,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Despite the third quarter typically showing strong consumer PC sales due to the back-to-school season, weakness in consumer PC demand continued, offsetting the strong sales in the business market.”
“Although the third-quarter results did not show any material impact, the Intel CPU shortage could influence the PC market moving forward with price increases and changes to the vendor landscape. While this shortage will have some short-term impacts, Gartner does not see any lasting impact on overall PC demand. Current expectation is that the shortage will continue into 2019, but Intel will prioritize the high-end CPU as well as the CPUs for business PCs. In the meantime, AMD will pick up the part of the market where Intel cannot supply CPUs.”
Lenovo secured the top spot in the worldwide PC market with growth of 10.7 percent, driven by regained traction in the commercial market and its joint venture with Fujitsu (see Table 1). HP Inc. dropped to the second position, but recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment growth. HP showed strong desktop shipment growth, which indicated strong demand among corporate buyers.
Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q18 (Thousands of Units)
Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.
*Lenovo's results include Fujitsu's units starting in 2Q18 to reflect the joint venture that closed in May 2018.
Source: Gartner (October 2018)
Dell experienced its 10th consecutive quarter of shipment growth, with growth of 5.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018. Dell did well in EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan, showing growth in both desktop and mobile PCs in these regions. However, Dell’s shipments declined in Latin America and the U.S. due to the weakness in the mobile PC market.
PC shipments in Asia Pacific totaled 24.3 million units, a 0.3 percent increase from the third quarter of 2017. PC demand from the commercial segment buoyed the market. Though the consumer segment continued to be challenging in terms of unit sales, demand remained at the midrange to premium price points, signaling purchases from consumers who look for features, functions and quality built for specific needs. Shipments in China grew 0.8 percent in the third quarter of 2018, showing a continued gradual recovery from a steady decline over the past few quarters.
These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product planning, distribution, marketing and sales organizations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), is the world's leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organizations of tomorrow.
Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We are a trusted advisor and objective resource for more than 15,000 organizations in more than 100 countries — across all major functions, in every industry and organization size.
To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit www.gartner.com.
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EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan experienced growth in the third quarter of 2018, while the U.S. and Latin America declined. Latin America showed the steepest decline of 8.5 percent after showing some stabilization earlier in 2018. However, these results are in line with Gartner’s expectations in view of CPU supply constraints for the rest of the year.
“The PC market continued to be driven by steady corporate PC demand, which was driven by Windows 10 PC hardware upgrades. We expect the Windows 10 upgrade cycle to continue through 2020 at which point the upgrade demand will diminish,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Despite the third quarter typically showing strong consumer PC sales due to the back-to-school season, weakness in consumer PC demand continued, offsetting the strong sales in the business market.”
“Although the third-quarter results did not show any material impact, the Intel CPU shortage could influence the PC market moving forward with price increases and changes to the vendor landscape. While this shortage will have some short-term impacts, Gartner does not see any lasting impact on overall PC demand. Current expectation is that the shortage will continue into 2019, but Intel will prioritize the high-end CPU as well as the CPUs for business PCs. In the meantime, AMD will pick up the part of the market where Intel cannot supply CPUs.”
Lenovo secured the top spot in the worldwide PC market with growth of 10.7 percent, driven by regained traction in the commercial market and its joint venture with Fujitsu (see Table 1). HP Inc. dropped to the second position, but recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment growth. HP showed strong desktop shipment growth, which indicated strong demand among corporate buyers.
Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q18 (Thousands of Units)
Company | 3Q18 Shipments | 3Q18 Market Share (%) | 3Q17 Shipments | 3Q17 Market Share (%) | 3Q18-3Q17 Growth (%) |
| Lenovo* | 15,889 | 23.6 | 14,357 | 21.4 | 10.7 |
| HP Inc. | 14,629 | 21.8 | 13,773 | 20.5 | 6.2 |
| Dell | 10,737 | 16.0 | 10,200 | 15.2 | 5.3 |
| Apple | 4,928 | 7.3 | 5,385 | 8.0 | -8.5 |
| Acer Group | 4,074 | 6.1 | 4,322 | 6.4 | -5.7 |
| Asus | 4,013 | 6.0 | 4,774 | 7.1 | -15.9 |
| Others | 12,934 | 19.2 | 14,345 | 21.4 | -9.8 |
| Total | 67,206 | 100.0 | 67,156 | 100.0 | 0.1 |
*Lenovo's results include Fujitsu's units starting in 2Q18 to reflect the joint venture that closed in May 2018.
Source: Gartner (October 2018)
Dell experienced its 10th consecutive quarter of shipment growth, with growth of 5.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018. Dell did well in EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan, showing growth in both desktop and mobile PCs in these regions. However, Dell’s shipments declined in Latin America and the U.S. due to the weakness in the mobile PC market.
PC shipments in Asia Pacific totaled 24.3 million units, a 0.3 percent increase from the third quarter of 2017. PC demand from the commercial segment buoyed the market. Though the consumer segment continued to be challenging in terms of unit sales, demand remained at the midrange to premium price points, signaling purchases from consumers who look for features, functions and quality built for specific needs. Shipments in China grew 0.8 percent in the third quarter of 2018, showing a continued gradual recovery from a steady decline over the past few quarters.
These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product planning, distribution, marketing and sales organizations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), is the world's leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organizations of tomorrow.
Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We are a trusted advisor and objective resource for more than 15,000 organizations in more than 100 countries — across all major functions, in every industry and organization size.
To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit www.gartner.com.
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