PC sales fall below 65 million unit mark for first time in almost a decade

[midian182]

2015 wasn’t the best year for the global PC market, and it seems that the slump is continuing into this year. Analyst firms IDC and Gartner have said that personal computer sales fell between 10 and 12 percent during the first quarter of 2012, the lowest in almost a decade.

IDC notes that global PC sales fell 11.5 percent to 60.6 million units in Q1 2016, and Gartner stated it decline by 9.6 percent to 64.8 million units - making it the first quarter to see fewer than 65 million units since 2007.

According to Gartner, the top five worldwide vendors were Lenovo, HP, Dell, Asus, and Apple. HP took the biggest hit, seeing its sales fall 9 percent. Asus and Apple were the only companies to boast an increase in sales, but it was by a mere 1.5 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

“There was no particular motivation for U.S. consumers to purchase PCs in the first quarter of 2016,” said Mikako Kitagawa, the principal PC analyst at Gartner, in a statement.

IDC painted an even grimmer picture than Gartner. It found that every company in the top five experienced a drop in total global shipments. The firm also put Apple ahead of Asus on the list.

Compared to the global figures, PC sales in the US for the quarter weren’t as bad. Shipments were still at their lowest in three years, falling 6.6 percent to 13.1 million units, but Dell and Lenovo showed growth.

Despite the downward global trend, both firms reported that the figures were in line with expectations. There are a number of factors behind the drop in sales: the strength of the US dollar, a volatile stock market, the slow adoption of new PCs (especially in developing markets), and the ever rising popularity of smartphones.

It’s not all bad news, though. Both the firms are hopeful that Q1 2016 will mark the end of the global downward spiral, and, thanks in part to more businesses adopting Windows 10, the market will see a slight resurgence later this year.

iCharts

“With some IT buyers thinking about early Windows 10 transitions and with the potential continued ascent of Chromebooks in U.S. K-12, the PC market should experience a modest rebound in the coming months,” IDC’s Linn Huang, the research director covering devices and displays, said in a statement.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/64419-pc-sales-fall-below-65-million-unit-mark.html

 

[seefizzle]

I bet VR causes an uptick in PC sales this year.

 

[NnethKe]

This doesn't count for selfbuilded PC´s by people, so they can´t take this as PC´s going to be replaced anytime soon

 

[nnguy2]

Death of the pc 2016, version 20.

 

[TomSEA]

Wow..."only" 60.6 MILLION PC's were sold in one quarter of a year. That's definitely a recipe for disaster.

 

[Uncle Al]

One issue they fail to address is the number of PC's that us "tinker'ers" build, upgrade and just fool around with. Sadly, many of the PC makers seem determined to make every PC to the point that you need to take it back to the Mfg. or seller to do simple upgrades or repairs. Apple had it right in their first PC by making the lid easily opened and encouraging the user to play a bit. Oh sure, we blew up a few of them, but had a heck of a lot of fun in the process. Now days, not so much. Sigh ... another vote for "the good old days" .....

 

[SirGCal]

And simply put, how often do people NEED to upgrade anymore? My main gaming rig that runs anything is more then a few years old. I think I'm going to upgrade this year when new cards come out but even then I'll build it myself. These are just ridiculous.

 

[Adhmuz]

“There was no particular motivation for U.S. consumers to purchase PCs in the first quarter of 2016,” This is the only thing to agree with, and that's because there have been no major hardware improvements in the last couple of years, if your PC has USB 3.0 then chances are your good for a while. Heck, I still use X58 based motherboards in over half my PCs because I don't feel the need to upgrade to something marginally faster for my needs. Slap in a hexa-core Xeon and your good to go for a couple more years.

 

[Evernessince]

“There was no particular motivation for U.S. consumers to purchase PCs in the first quarter of 2016,” This is the only thing to agree with, and that's because there have been no major hardware improvements in the last couple of years, if your PC has USB 3.0 then chances are your good for a while. Heck, I still use X58 based motherboards in over half my PCs because I don't feel the need to upgrade to something marginally faster for my needs. Slap in a hexa-core Xeon and your good to go for a couple more years.

Yeah and those Xeons are going for dirt cheap right now. The slow year for PC can be directly traced to Intel's failure to innovate and it being a transition period of GPU makes. I fully expect that PC sales will really pick up when the new graphics card are released and as VR matures.

 

[mojorisin23]

What's a PC?

Seriously though. Just about everyone I know is either getting a MacBook or has one. I wonder if Apple's market share of the computer market has increased?

 

[DelJo63]

IMO, this is an impact of ubiquitous mobile devices. Just like customers dropped landlines and went with mobile phones, a great many are going to mobile devices as their primary use is email, texting and social media.

 

[MoeJoe]

Windows 10 breathed new life into a lot of older machines.
That's part of it.

What the platform providers need to do is now offer up new & useful
compelling reasons to ... buy again. It's a nice day, for a,
white wedding !

 

[heeeey heeey]

What's a PC?

Seriously though. Just about everyone I know is either getting a MacBook or has one. I wonder if Apple's market share of the computer market has increased?

MACs should be considered PCs just because it doesn't run windows, sales should be ignored they still use intel and the same components as other PCs.
I still would never buy a MAC though lol

 

[xLegendary]

My guess is that most of these numbers come from enterprise sales.
Gamers generally are more into DIY.