Lenovo maintained its No 1 position in worldwide PC sales, widening its share of the market.
According to research and advisory firm Gartner, Lenovo, HP and Dell together accounted for nearly 65 per cent of PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019, up from just more than 61 per cent in Q4 2018.
Barring the Asia-Pacific, Lenovo recorded year-on-year growth in all the regions; in the US, its growth stood at over 30 per cent.
The calendar year saw shipments of 261 million PCs, a growth of just 0.6 per cent from 2018, according to Gartner. The fourth quarter, however, shrugged off the negative sentiment, posting a growth of 2.3 per cent to 70.6 million units.
Windows 10 upgrades
“The PC market experienced growth for the first time since 2011, driven by vibrant business demand for Windows 10 upgrades, particularly in the US, EMEA (Europe, Middle-East and Asia) and Japan,” said Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner.
The growth is expected to continue through this year even with Windows 7 support coming to an end earlier this week. “Many businesses in emerging regions, such as China, Eurasia and the emerging Asia-Pacific, have not yet upgraded,” Kitagawa said.
Though the demand for consumer PCs was weak, increased demand for business PCs led to unit growth in five of the last seven quarters.
The ongoing Intel CPU shortage, which began mid-2019, impacted PC delivery to enterprise customers by the top three vendors. “Without this shortage, shipments would have grown faster than the reported results,” Kitagawa said. “The fourth quarter is typically a strong buying season for small and midsize businesses that want to maximise their spending before the tax year ends.”