Lenovo on top as global PC shipments drop 7.7 percent: Gartner

Chinese electronics major Lenovo maintained the top spot even as global PC shipments stood at 73.7 million units in the third quarter of 2015, a 7.7 percent decline from the third quarter of 2014, according to a report released by market research firm Gartner.

Although Lenovo showed an increase in market share (20.3 percent) compared to 19.6 percent in the third quarter of 2014, the number of shipments showed a decline of 4 percent to 14,995 units from 15,623 units in the corresponding period last year.

HP maintained the second position followed by Dell, Apple, Acer and Asus. While HP's market share reached 18.5 percent, its shipments declined by four percent.

"HP had weak shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), but they were offset by shipment growth in Asia/Pacific and US-based Dell saw flat shipments compared with a year ago. Dell did well in most regions, but it had a double-digit decline in shipments in Japan. In Asia/Pacific and the US, Dell grew faster than the regional average," said the report.

According to Gartner, desktop PCs continued to show weakness with a high-single-digit decline, while the segment that combines notebook PCs and premium ultramobiles (such as the MacBook Air and Microsoft Surface Pro) recorded a low-single-digit decline.

"The global PC market has experienced price increases of around 10 percent throughout the year, due to the sharp appreciation of the US dollar against local currencies," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

"In the third quarter of 2015, this continued to be a major cause for weaker demand in those regions. These impacted regions, which include EMEA, Japan and Latin America, posted double-digit declines in the third quarter. Asia/Pacific and the US were more stable," he added.

The research firm also said that Windows 10 had a minimal impact on shipments in the quarter. Gartner analysts said the focus of the Windows launch in the quarter was to upgrade to Windows 10 on existing PCs, rather than ship on new PCs.

The Windows 10 rollout will ramp up in the fourth quarter of 2015 holiday sales, analysts said.