Lenovo snatches HP's crown as PC sales plunge ahead of Windows 8 launch

Analysts unsure launch of Microsoft's new platform will be a panacea for PC market

HP has lost its position as the top PC vendor in the world to rival Lenovo, as worldwide PC sales shrink, according to new data from analyst house Gartner.

Overall the market for PC devices, including desk-based systems, laptops and notebooks, in the third quarter of 2012 saw shipments decrease by 8.3 percent from 95 million in the same period in 2011 to 87 million in the same period in 2012.

Research director at Gartner, Ranjit Atwal, told V3 that the slump seen by most vendors underlining the importance of Windows 8 to the market, as buyers hold off on purchases until the platform is launched.

"The market been weak for two years now, in many ways this quarter has brought this to a head. There was always going to be a dependency on Windows 8 to liven the market up again" he said.

"However, there are a lot more choices out there now for users and the key thing about Windows 8 - the touch interface - is not a new value proposition, but it still adds another $50-100 to the price of a device."

Atwal said part of the problems is the lack of a clear message from the major players in this space, such as Microsoft and Intel, which are instead "pulling the market in different directions" towards tablets, including Microsoft's own Surface device, or ultrabooks.

"There's no single message so there's no single Apple-style marketing campaign," he added.

HP, which has been the market leader for PC shipments since 2006, was the biggest loser as it saw sales decline in the third quarter of 2012 by a sizeable 16.4 percent on the same period in 2011, from 16.2 million to 13.5 million.

Dell and Acer also suffered notable declines in fortune, with the former seeing sales slip by almost 14 percent to 9.2 million, while the latter's slumped by 10.2 percent from 9.6 million to 8.6 million.

Lenovo snatches HP's crown as PC sales plunge ahead of Windows 8 launch

Analysts unsure launch of Microsoft's new platform will be a panacea for PC market

However, while these firms suffered Lenovo gained strongly, as the vendor saw its sales rise by 9.8 percent to 13.7 million, up from 12.5 million the same period the year before, to become the number one PC seller.

Lenovo chief executive Yuanqing Yang was understandably upbeat on the figures.

"We know the PC market is highly competitive, but also firmly believe there is room for continued profitable growth in this space," he said.

"Becoming the clear leader in global PC share of course remains one of Lenovo's aspirations, but it also only represents one more milestone in our journey as a company and our mission to become the leader in the PC era. "

The only other vendor to see any improvement was Asus which rose from 5.7 million in Q3 2011 to 6.5 million the same period in 2012.

Gartner's Atwal said the success seen by Lenovo in the face of tough conditions was due in part to their strength in the Asia Pacific regions but also their expansion into Europe with its acquisition of Medion and the strength of it ThinkPad brand in enterprise markets.

Despite this, though, the slump in the market was still seen heavily in Europe, with shipments down by 8.7 percent to 25.8 million, which Atwal blamed on several factors.

"Western Europe has been declining in volumes for two years now and there is an underlying squeeze on PCs as the economies in Europe shift and consumers have been taken by innovations like tablets and e-readers over PCs," he said.

"There's a lot of hurdles for PC manufacturers to overcome when Windows 8 does launch on issues around price, and Microsoft is not top of mind for a lot of consumers looking for a new product."

The figures match those from IHS that predicted the PC market as a whole would drop 1.2 per cent in 2012 due to similar issues of pricing and the arrival of Windows 8.