PC shipments finally grow in the US, but fall everywhere else

Lenovo lead under attack from HP

New reports from Gartner and IDC suggest that, in the US at least, there's been growth in PC shipments for the first time in over a year.

But sales are still on a downward spiral in other key markets. The figures show around a five per cent drop, lower than the doomsayers predicted but still a problem as people continue to favour tablets.

"One of the ongoing problems in the PC market has been the price hike in selected regions due to the weakening local currency against the US dollar," said Mikako Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner.

"The price issue has affected the EMEA and Latin America regions for the past year. However, PC shipment declines became rather modest in the second quarter compared with previous quarters, which suggests a fading currency impact."

In the UK, for example, where Brexit continues to have a less than stable effect on the pounds in our pocket, we've already seen hardware companies begin to charge more for their wares, including HP, Dell and OnePlus, with more expected to join.

But there is some hope. It's less than three weeks until the end of Windows 10's free upgrade offer, and we'll start to see a lot of consumers considering buying a new computer rather than paying to upgrade their old one.

Chromebooks are more established in the US than they are here, and it could well be that the Google-powered budget laptops are distorting the otherwise downward trend.

What's quite notable, however, is how close the different vendors are becoming in terms of market share.

A quick look at the Gartner worldwide figures shows market leader Lenovo on 20.5 per cent with HP snapping at its heels on 19.1 per cent. Dell retains a comfortable third place at 15.2 per cent, a fair way from the leaders but outselling its next rival Asus by more than double.