Worldwide PC shipments totaled 89 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 1.9 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011, when shipments reached 87.3 million units, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. These results exceed Gartner’s earlier projections of a 1.2 percent decline for the quarter.
“The results were mixed depending on the region, as we saw the EMEA region perform better than expected, while Asia/Pacific performed below expectations, in part because of slow growth in India and China,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, in the press release. “While the PC industry has high expectations for strong growth in the emerging markets, the slowdown of these countries in this quarter provides a cautionary notice to vendors that the future growth for the PC industry cannot heavily depend on the emerging markets even though PC penetration in these regions is low.”
“In general, the hard-disk drive (HDD) supply shortage had a limited impact on PC supply during 1Q12. There was a moderate impact on selected markets, such as low-end consumer notebooks and the white-box market in selected regions. Still, low PC demand was able to mask the tight HDD supply overall.”
Although PC vendors typically experience low consumer PC sales in the first quarter, Gartner’s preliminary results reveal worse-than-normal consumer PC shipment growth. The weak consumer PC demand is in part because of intensified competition for consumers’ budgets. Device vendors that focus on a limited product line will get only a small portion of the consumer wallet. Companies such as Apple can be clear winners because of comprehensive product/service offerings, which gain a large part of consumers’ spending.
HP increased its share as the global market leader, as it accounted for 17.2 percent of worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of 2012 (see Table 2). HP was able to secure HDD inventory, unlike 4Q11 when it was faced with a shortage issue. HP’s growth also indicates that internal management issues were resolved, and analysts said it appears HP was able to restore some of the business it lost as a result of those issues.
Table 1: Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q12 (Units)
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.
Source: Gartner (April 2012)
Lenovo experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors, as its shipments increased 28.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Lenovo has been enjoying healthy growth in the professional market, while the company successfully expanded into the consumer space.
Dell underperformed in most regions compared with a year ago. For the first time in two years, Dell experienced a year-over-year shipment decline in the Asia/Pacific market. Gartner analysts said early indications suggest that Dell’s relatively low shipments were mainly due to low-end consumer systems, to which Dell gave low priority. Dell’s investments seem to be more focused toward businesses.
In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 15.5 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 3.5 percent decline from the same period last year (see Table 2). Gartner analysts had expected the market to decline 6.1 percent in the quarter.
“The consumer segment continued to be a drag on market growth, as PC demand was low,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “The HDD supply shortage moderately impacted the very low-end consumer notebook market, so channels could not run aggressive promotions with very low-end systems. Questions remain on whether low-end systems can attract consumers, as their attention has moved to other devices.”
HP experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors in the U.S., as its shipments grew 6.6 percent, and its market share reached 29 percent in the quarter. Apple was the only other vendor among the top five to show growth in the quarter, as its shipments increased 3.8 percent.
Table 2: Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q12 (Units)
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.
Source: Gartner (April 2012)
PC shipments in EMEA totaled 28.2 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 6.7 percent increase from the same period last year (see Table 3).
“The EMEA PC market grew faster than the worldwide PC market because of solid demand from the professional market as organisations executed long-awaited Windows 7 plans,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, in the press release. Demand came from Western Europe as well as emerging markets, and it strengthened the desk-based PC market. Gartner estimates that the EMEA desk-based PC market will account for 40 percent of total PC shipments in 2012. “The desk-based PC isn’t dead yet,” added Mr. Atwal.
Table 3: Preliminary EMEA PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q12 (Units)
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.
Source: Gartner (April 2012)
Growth in PC shipments to Central and Eastern Europe was slightly higher than expected, with improved demand from Russia and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and more modest upturns in other countries. The Middle East and Africa also had an upbeat quarter, with spending returning to the consumer market.
Although there was no change in the ranking of the top five vendors, vendors’ performances varied. HP not only retained the No. 1 position, but increased its market share and its lead over its closest rivals, Acer and Dell. Lenovo exhibited the best growth, thanks to solid increases across its desk-based and mobile PC lines. Acer continued to reduce its inventory levels, and was the only top-five vendor to show a decline.
Overall, the EMEA PC market had a very weak 2011, not helped by the shortage of HDDs. However, the relative stability of the economic environment gave vendors an opportunity to replenish inventory and meet demand for professional PCs.
In Asia/Pacific, PC shipments reached 30.3 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011. In China, shipments of desk-based PCs decreased significantly as there was no longer a rural PC program in place to drive demand. In India, the Tamil Nadu deal, operated by local government to provide free laptops to students, was supposed to be executed in the first quarter, but it has been postponed to subsequent quarters.
The PC market in Latin America declined 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012, as shipments totaled 9 million units. Mobile PC shipments grew 0.4 percent over the first quarter of 2011, while desk-based PC shipments decreased 7.6 percent. Many white-box PC vendors had depleted inventory due to the HDD shortage.
PC shipments in Japan grew 11.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012, as shipments reached 4.4 million units. The double-digit growth was due in part to the very weak performance in 1Q11, which was affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March of last year.
“The first quarter of 2012 was a transitional period as the PC industry is awaiting two big releases: Intel’s Ivy Bridge and Microsoft’s Windows 8. Both are expected to be launched this year. Although these new releases are not expected to stimulate demand as much as the industry hopes, they will affect PC supply so that there will be artificial supply control before and after the product releases. There will be few products rolled out into the market until these major releases have taken place,” Ms. Kitagawa said.
These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner’s PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product planning, distribution, marketing and sales organizations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe. Additional research can be found on Gartner’s Computing Hardware section on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/asset_129157_2395.jsp.
Source: Gartner, Inc.
MacDailyNews Note: The above figures are estimates. Apple will report actual Mac unit sales numbers for calendar Q1 (fiscal Q212) after market close on Tuesday, April 24, 2012.
Lookin’ good! Wish Steve was around to enjoy it with us.
Increased growth and a distant third, but better than nothing. More like a win through default thanks to horribly piss-poor fourth and fifth place PC sales.
… not to include Tablet numbers in with those for Servers, Desktops, Laptops and NetBooks. Think maybe the fact that Apple OWNS this market niche figured in somewhere? Or maybe that none of “the usual suspects” even has a possible contender on the drawing boards is a factor?
Try: not including tablets.. err iPads with
1. ATM machines
2. Cash registers and POS computers
3. Rows of glorified typewriters.
4. Rack mounted servers that never see direct human manipulation.
The list goes on, but its a tortured list full of items that it would be a stretch to say they are being used as “personal” computers. Whereas the iPads are simply the most personal computers ever created.
Gardner has long been a corrupt and untrustworthy source of anti Apple propaganda masquerading as market research. I can only wonder at the implications when even they are forced to reluctantly admit good news for Apple.
It doesn’t look like iPad sales are included
… are looking good – though they do not obviously favor Apple. The one that does favor Apple would be “profit” … how’s that working for ya, HP and Dell?
The missing volume numbers that I mentioned earlier might just take a little of the shine off 1st and 2nd place.
It’s hard to believe people are still buying PCs. Oh yea, there is that pesky low end PC the market.
I bet Apple Macs grew more than 3.8% in the US!
Let’s see the real numbers.
10.6% share and only two real trojans, MacDefender and Flashback. The first requires admin pw or at least an OK-click. The second is not even native. It’s nice that Apple is helping out, but it’s Oracle’s responsibility.