World PC shipments fall for 8th straight quarter

Marking the longest duration of decline in the history of PC industry, worldwide shipments fell yet again in the September quarter this year -- down 5.7 per cent to 68.9 million units, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday. 

This was the eighth consecutive quarter of fall in PC shipments, according to preliminary results by Gartner.

In the July-September quarter of last year the shipments had totalled 79 million units. 

PC manufacturers faced many challenges, which included weak back-to-school demand, and ongoing low demand in the consumer market, especially in emerging markets, it said.

"There are two fundamental issues that have impacted PC market results: the extension of the lifetime of the PC caused by the excess of consumer devices, and weak PC consumer demand in emerging markets," Gartner Principal Analyst Mikako Kitagawa said.

In emerging markets, PC penetration is low, but consumers are not keen to own PCs as they primarily use smartphones or phablets for their computing needs, and they don't find the need to use a PC as much as consumers in mature markets.

The top six vendors combined for a record high 78 per cent of PC shipments in the third quarter of 2016.

Lenovo continued to be the worldwide market leader based on preliminary PC shipments with 20.9 per cent share, followed by HP at 20.4 per cent and Dell at 14.7 per cent share. 

Asus, Apple and Acer followed in the tally with 7.8 per cent, 7.2 per cent and 6.7 per cent share, respectively.

The data includes numbers of desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface) shipped but excludes Chromebooks and iPads.

In the United States, Personal Computer shipments totaled 16.2 million units in the third quarter, 0.3 per cent decline from the same period last year. This is the second consecutive quarter of flat year-over -year PC shipment growth.

Asia Pacific PC shipments totaled 24.7 million units in the third quarter of 2016, a 7.6 per cent decline from the third quarter of 2016.

Personal Computer shipments in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) surpassed 19.2 million units in the third quarter of 2016, a 3.3 per cent decline from the same period last year.