Following up on the projections it says that PC shipments worldwide witnessed flat growth during the second quarter of 2014. Total PC shipments, which includes desktops, notebooks and premium ultra-mobiles, peaked at 75.7 million units, with the United States taking up 15.9 million of the total.
"While the worldwide PC market stopped two years of declining shipments in the second quarter, there were mixed results, as stabilization in developed markets was offset by a decline in emerging markets," said Gartner's Mikako Kitagawa. "The PC industry in emerging markets has been impacted by the allure of low-cost tablets. These low-cost tablets continue to take spending from new PC units, meaning that it will take more time for PC sales to stabilize in emerging markets."
Growth for the year-over-year comparison for the second quarter wasn't stellar, adding up to a total of a 0.1 percent increase. While the flat growth doesn't amount to much, it's enough to bring an end to the sliding PC shipments for the time being. By Gartner's figures, the tiny growth was made possible by an increase of 62,823 units.
The highest unit shipment increase from the previous year belongs to Lenovo. The manufacturer boosted units by 1.9 million, to bring its PC market share up to 19.2, a gain 2.5 percent from 2013. Resulting growth from 2013 to 2014 for the second quarter was 15.1 percent. Lenovo's largest regional growth was in the Asia-Pacific market. Acer Group witnessed a decline, moving from 8.5 percent market share in the second quarter of 2013 to 7.9 percent in 2014. Shipped units decreased by 440,000, a reduction of seven percent.
In the United States, HP saw the largest increase for the quarter, moving from 25.8 percent of the market share in 2013 to 27.7 percent in 2014. Gartner believes that the increase is tied to HP's restoration of its PC business. Lenovo saw a growth of 20.3 percent over the previous year, leading Toshiba's 18.5-percent growth and Dell's increase of 12.3 percent. Total shipments for the second quarter of 2014 totaled 15.9 million, a 7.4 percent increase over 2013's total of 14.8 million.
The Europe, the Middle East and Africa market hit 22.5 million units, which indicated an 8.6 percent increase year-over-year in the second quarter. Gartner attributes the growth to purchasing related to Windows XP upgrades and an upturn in professional spending.
Asia-Pacific territories saw 24.6 million units shipped, but witnessed a decrease of 9.5 percent from the previous year. The region could experience a further decrease due to phablets and smartphones, but the research company expects the numbers to stabilize into flat growth and minimal declines.
Gartner recognized that the market for traditional PCs has declined over the last two years as more of the consumer base shifted to tablets and smartphones for primary consumption and entertainment. The research company believes that the migration to tablets hit a peak in 2013, allowing the PC market to recover sooner. Currently, the market is seeing a slowdown in premium tablet purchasing, which will allow PCs to recover slowly with its core user base.
