End of XP support helps slow PC market slump as Lenovo, HP and Dell rebound

Europe has first positive growth for eight quarters

The end of support for Windows XP helped ease the decline in PC shipments worldwide, with HP, Lenovo, Acer and Asus all profiting.

Gartner data found that shipments for the first quarter of 2014 were 76.6 million, a 1.7 percent decline on the same quarter in 2013. This was also down slightly on the 82.6 million PCs shipped in Q4 2013.

While still a drop, Gartner noted that the decline was far less dramatic than previous quarters. It attributed this slowdown to the end of XP support, which led to many firms and individual users finally buying new machines.

But Meike Escherich, Gartner principal analyst, told V3 that while the XP support cut-off had helped stabilise the market, it was unlikely to be a long-term benefit as the buyer base for PCs is still reducing.

"Business are having to replace machines and that's not going to happen in one big wave but over the next few quarters. Then the market will slow down again before the next migration," she said.

"The installed base of PCs is still shrinking because most people are moving to ultramobiles and tablets, and it is only the business market where sales are still made in any number."

Among the firms to benefit from this boost was Lenovo, which saw worldwide growth between Q1 2013 and Q1 2014 of 10.9 percent, with 12.9 million shipments in Q1 2014, giving it a 16.9 percent market share.

HP's market share rose to 16 percent, driven by a 4.1 percent growth over the two quarters with 12.2 million devices shipped. Dell took third, with 12.5 percent market share and nine percent growth, as 9.5 million of its devices were shipped in Q1 2014.

Rounding out the top five, Acer took 7.3 percent market share - although this was down from 8.4 percent in the same period last year - while Asus now has a 6.9 percent market share, up from 6.5 percent last year.

Escherich said Acer was suffering because its portfolio had failed to evolve quickly enough for the market from its previous success with netbooks, leaving it without strong consumer or business uptake.

"They've had a lot of internal issues too and they're consumer guys at heart. What they have at the moment is not what people want, but they will come back and stay within the top five," she said.

The remaining 40.5 percent of the market is covered by ‘other' vendors, such as Apple, and local firms within markets such as China or India.

Europe rises for the first time in eight quarters
In Europe shipments for the quarter hit 22.9 million, up 0.3 percent since the same period last year, marking the first positive growth in the region for eight quarters.

HP took the top spot with 19.9 percent market share and 4.6 million shipments, while Lenovo came second with 15.2 percent market share and 3.5 million shipments.

Government buying of new machines was cited as a key reason for this growth, according to Isabelle Durand, principal research analyst at Gartner. "The end of support for Windows XP has boosted commercial desktop sales, driven in part by delayed government buying in major Western European countries," she said.

"The professional PC market looks stronger overall, as business and governments adjust to a more favourable economic environment. We also expect to see the impact of XP migration continue throughout 2014."

PC vendors will no doubt hope that the uplift from the death of Windows XP support will last for as long as possible, and with security risks for those on XP now increasingly massively, it is likely that there will be more migrations away from the platform.