According to industry analysts from Gartner and IDC, the PC industry continued to decline in the most recent quarter. But there are bright spots, especially for HP, which has regained its number one position and has experienced five straight quarters of growing unit sales.
PC makers sold 60.8 million PCs worldwide in Q2 2017, a decline of 3.8 percent year over year (YOY).
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You may recall that last quarter, PC makers almost bottomed out, hitting a 1 percent decline YOY. There was some hope that the quarter would mark the long-awaited rebound, as PC sales have now declined for over five years.
So that didn’t happen. But it also didn’t happen this quarter. So what’s going on?
IDC says that the “traditional PC market,” as they’re suddenly calling it—or, “desktops, notebooks, and workstation,” but not tablets—was impacted somewhat by parts inventory buildup, leading to rising PC prices. And Gartner agreed, noting that “component shortages for DRAM, solid state drives (SSDs) and LCD panels had a pronounced negative impact on PC demand.”
I’m still looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. But the central question is unchanged: Does the PC market bottom out at some level, apparently still unknown? Or does it continue a long, steady decline?
In the good news department, HP continues its upward trajectory, thanks, I’m sure, to the stellar PC designs that the company continues to pump out. HP sold 13.24 million PCs in the quarter, good for 21.78 percent of the market. That’s a gain of 4.75 percent, which is the strongest growth experienced by the biggest PC makers.
Lenovo was again in second place, with 12.3 million units sold, a decline of 7 percent. Lenovo controls about 20.2 percent of the worldwide PC market.
Dell, Apple, and ASUS accounted for the remainder of the top five, with ASUS experiencing a massive, double-digit decline.
Interestingly, Gartner does not include Chromebooks in its tally—it should—but it notes that “the [PC] education market was under pressure from strong Chromebook demand,” and that Chromebooks are growing, while PCs are not. Worldwide Chromebook shipments grew 38 percent in 2016, while the overall PC market declined 6 percent, it says.
Bats
<p>LOL…that image is funny.</p><p>I hate to say this, but here it goes: See I Told You So.</p><p>I think it was about 5,6, or 7 years ago, when Paul was poo-pooing the Chromebook PC and voluntarily enlisted in Microsoft's Scroogle campaign against Google, I remember telling him how wrong he was. I remember commenting on the Supersite how the Chromebook and the phone will eventually pull Windows PC's down, because the features offered on a Windows PC is complicated and that software costs too much. In addition, I also saw the potential of web apps. Web Apps aren't just easier to use, in terms of usability and accessibility, and hardly requires any installation.</p><p>I still feel now, as I felt then, the Windows PC will be reduced to 1 PC per (middle class) household. I think that when it comes to that point, the PC decline will may have bottomed out. </p><p>Again, it's all about the ecosystem and right now, and Microsoft has none. Without question, Google has the best. They are the standard. Not even Apple can touch them. Perhaps everyone has a different definition of ecosystem. To me, an ecosystem is like one's house. In one's house, you can eat, sleep, watch tv, play games, read and do whatever you like within the confines of your own space. With Google, you can work, play, be entertained all within one log in. I just keep hearing Paul (and Andew) keep talking about how weak the Microsoft App ecosystem is. I think it's much much more than that. </p><p>Don't get me wrong, this is not a total rejection of Microsoft. I bet people are not even thinking about it. It's just that offerings by Chromebooks, Android, and iPhones are just better. </p>