Global PC shipments fall 3.7% in Q4 to 72.6 mn units: Gartner

Global PC shipments fell by 3.7 per cent to 72.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016 from the year-ago period, impacted by decline in all regions including India, according to research firm Gartner.

For the entire year, shipments tumbled 6.2 per cent to 269.7 million units compared to 2015, marking the fifth-straight year of decline, Gartner said.

"Stagnation in the PC market continued into the fourth quarter of 2016 as holiday sales were generally weak due to the fundamental change in PC buying behavior," Gartner Principal Analyst Mikako Kitagawa said.

The broad PC market has been static as technology improvements have not been sufficient to drive the real market growth, she added.

In terms of geographies, the Asia-Pacific market dipped 3.9 per cent to 24.8 million units.

"The APAC PC market was affected by two major events. First, the demonetisation of the Indian currency in India led to weaker-than-expected consumer PC demand. Second, the success of China's 11.11 (Singles Day on 11 November) online shopping event gave a boost to consumer notebook sales," Gartner said.

The US saw PC shipments falling 1.3 per cent year-on-year to 16.5 million units in October-December 2016, while Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) registered shipment of 21.9 million units (3.4 per cent fall y-o-y).

Lenovo ranked numero uno with 21.7 per cent global market share in the fourth quarter of 2016, followed by HP (20.4 per cent), Dell (14.8 per cent), Asus and Apple (7.5 per cent each) and Acer Group (6.9 per cent).

"There have been innovative form factors like 2-in-1s and thin and light notebooks, as well as technology improvements, such as longer battery life. This end of the market has grown fast, led by engaged PC users who put high priority on PCs," Kitagawa said.

However, the market driven by PC enthusiasts is not big enough to drive overall market growth, Kitagawa added.

Kitagawa said although the overall PC market will see stagnation, there are growth opportunities within the market like the engaged PC user market, the business market and gaming.

However, these growth areas will not prevent the overall decline of the PC market, at least in the next year, she added.