Personal computer shipments are still down, according to preliminary numbers collected by information technology research and advisory company Gartner, Inc. But the numbers aren’t as bad as you might think.
Worldwide PC shipments totaled about 71.7 million units during the first quarter of 2015, a 5.2% drop from the first quarter of 2014. Those figures could be skewed, though, because “many companies replaced their PCs due to the end of Windows XP support,” Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement, and “that replacement cycle faded in the first quarter of 2015.”
Lenovo and HP both increased their first quarter 2014 vendor unit shipment estimates – 5.7% and 2.5%, respectively – while ASUS, Dell and Acer all dipped at least 2.9%. Sales of notebooks, hybrids and Windows tablets also increased year-over-year.
The data, which aren’t final, exclude Chromebooks, Window-based tablets with a display smaller than 10 inches, and other non-Windows-based tablets.
“Mobile PCs are being driven by a separate underlying replacement cycle, which led mobile growth in the first quarter,” Kitagawa said. “PC replacements will be driven by thin and light notebooks with tablet functionality. Our early study suggests strong growth of hybrid notebooks, especially in mature markets, in 1Q15.
“The first quarter results are not a sign doom for the U.S. market.”
