Marchingontogether
TK Veteran
The personal computer market keeps declining, even despite consumers being forced to upgrade their computers because of the end of Windows XP support.
According to various researches, China’s Lenovo is still at the top of the business, ahead of HP, while Taiwan’s Acer saw a falloff in sales of 15%-20% compared to 2013, though remaining in 4th place worldwide behind Dell.
At the same time, the PC market is becoming more concentrated. For example, the proportion of Windows PC sales from outside the top 5 makers (Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer and Asus) has declined from 50% to 35%. Acer is reported to be struggling to regain profitability, while Asus saw first-quarter revenue down 3%, though it leads the market for “hybrid” devices that combine tablet and notebook functionality. It should be noted that these PC figures don’t include tablets with detachable keyboard like Microsoft’s Surface.
Talking about smaller PC makers, everyone could see how the intensifying pressure in the consumer PC business has forced Sony into quitting the business. In addition, Korea’s LG was also mulling a withdrawal when its local government cut back on PC purchases. Apple, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony and Fujitsu had single-digit market share last year, altogether totaling to 31.4% of the market.
A key driver within the last quarter was businesses replacing old computers in the face of Windows XP approaching its end in April. Microsoft’s move drove growth among business buyers in the developed countries, where the installed base of computers is larger and older. The industry also expects to see the impact of XP migration to continue throughout this year. However, in the Asia/Pacific region, where the machines are comparatively newer, the shipments declined by over 10%.
As for the market of the United States, it was stagnant, with shipments of around 14 million. All makers outside the 3 big corporate suppliers (HP, Dell and Lenovo) saw consistent declines in sales.
Desktop, laptop and ultrabook sales have been decreasing during the last 2 years, because people have switched to portable devices – smartphones, tablets and “phablets”, which allowed accomplishing computing tasks at home and on the go. Taking into account that consumer sales used to make up 50% of the PC business, that move has intensified competition among makers for corporate contracts.
According to various researches, China’s Lenovo is still at the top of the business, ahead of HP, while Taiwan’s Acer saw a falloff in sales of 15%-20% compared to 2013, though remaining in 4th place worldwide behind Dell.
At the same time, the PC market is becoming more concentrated. For example, the proportion of Windows PC sales from outside the top 5 makers (Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer and Asus) has declined from 50% to 35%. Acer is reported to be struggling to regain profitability, while Asus saw first-quarter revenue down 3%, though it leads the market for “hybrid” devices that combine tablet and notebook functionality. It should be noted that these PC figures don’t include tablets with detachable keyboard like Microsoft’s Surface.
Talking about smaller PC makers, everyone could see how the intensifying pressure in the consumer PC business has forced Sony into quitting the business. In addition, Korea’s LG was also mulling a withdrawal when its local government cut back on PC purchases. Apple, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony and Fujitsu had single-digit market share last year, altogether totaling to 31.4% of the market.
A key driver within the last quarter was businesses replacing old computers in the face of Windows XP approaching its end in April. Microsoft’s move drove growth among business buyers in the developed countries, where the installed base of computers is larger and older. The industry also expects to see the impact of XP migration to continue throughout this year. However, in the Asia/Pacific region, where the machines are comparatively newer, the shipments declined by over 10%.
As for the market of the United States, it was stagnant, with shipments of around 14 million. All makers outside the 3 big corporate suppliers (HP, Dell and Lenovo) saw consistent declines in sales.
Desktop, laptop and ultrabook sales have been decreasing during the last 2 years, because people have switched to portable devices – smartphones, tablets and “phablets”, which allowed accomplishing computing tasks at home and on the go. Taking into account that consumer sales used to make up 50% of the PC business, that move has intensified competition among makers for corporate contracts.
