Global PC shipments increased 1.5 percent year-on-year last quarter, reversing two quarters of declines, preliminary results published by market research and advisory firm Gartner Inc showed.
China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) kept its place at the top with a 25 percent share of the PC market. It shipped 15.77 million units, an annual increase of 15.9 percent, Gartner said in a report released on Thursday.
Gartner attributed Lenovo’s growth to expectations of tariff hikes, as the company experienced double-digit percentage shipment growth in all key regions except for Latin America, where the PC market recorded a decline.
HP Inc followed closely with shipments of 13.99 million units, an increase of 2.6 percent from last year, taking a 22.2 percent market share, the report said.
While Gartner did not take into account Chromebook shipments, the research firm said that HP experienced strong growth in the segment, where it is likely to remain the leader.
Dell Inc placed third with 10.65 million units shipped, an annual increase of a 2.1 percent, and took a 16.9 percent market share, the report said.
US computer giant Dell has recorded growth for six consecutive quarters, Gartner said, adding that its growth trend is the most consistent among the top PC vendors.
Other major PC firms such as Apple Inc, Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) all lagged behind with shipments under 4 million units, which declined 0.2 percent, 14.4 percent and 9.9 percent respectively.
The top three PC companies accounted for 64.1 percent of total shipments last quarter, up from 60.6 percent in the same quarter last year.
“Worldwide PC shipment growth was driven by demand from the Windows 10 refresh in the business market last quarter. Desktop PC growth was strong, which offset a decline in mobile PC shipments,” Gartner senior principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in the report.
“Additionally, there are signs that the Intel CPU shortage is easing, which has been an ongoing impact to the market for the past 18 months,” Kitagawa said.
The Intel CPU shortage has particularly affected small and mid-sized vendors, and larger vendors took advantage of the situation, taking market share away from the smaller vendors, Kitagawa said.
While the overall PC market was not affected by the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China, Kitagawa warned of steep PC price increases if the US decides to impose new tariffs on goods from China.
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