PC market recovery goes into reverse due to Intel chip shortage

Worldwide PC sales fall by 4.3 per cent in the fourth quarter as supply issues stymie demand

The 2018 recovery in PC sales ground to a halt in the fourth quarter, according to the box counters at Gartner, with global sales falling by 4.3 per cent.

That had come after sales growth in the second and third quarters of the year had indicated a recovery in the PC market.

Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner, attributed the decline to a CPU shortage, with manufacturing issues at Intel pushing up chip prices and leaving PC makers unable to fulfil orders, particularly as part of the business PC upgrade cycle.

On top of that, added Kitagawa, there were also some political and economic uncertainties across the world dampening demand. And, furthermore, PCs and laptops don't feature as prominently on Christmas lists as they once used to.

Nevertheless, the top-three vendors strengthened their positions across the world, with Lenovo, HP and Dell accounting for 63 per cent of global PC shipments in the fourth quarter, up from 59 per cent in the same quarter in 2017.

Globally, Lenovo nosed ahead of HP, with Lenovo taking a 24.2 per cent market share against HP's 22.4 per cent. Dell came in third, increasing its global market share from 15 per cent to 15.9 per cent.

The big losers among the ‘big six' were Asus and Acer in fifth and sixth place, respectively, with Asus sales down by more than one-tenth and Acer sales down by almost one-fifth.

Apple sales also fell, despite the long-awaited introduction of new models, although its market share was more or less flat - 7.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to 7.1 per cent in 2017.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q18 (Thousands of Units)

Table (bordered)
Lenovo
16,628
24.2
15,697
21.9
5.9
HP Inc
15,380
22.4
16,092
22.4
-4.4
Dell
10,915
15.9
10,763
15
1.4
Apple
4,920
7.2
5,112
7.1
-3.8
Asus
4,211
6.1
4,716
6.6
-10.7
Acer
3,861
5.6
4,726
6.6
-18.3
Others
12710
18.5
14590
20.3
-12.9

Source: Gartner

Much of the growth over the past ten years enjoyed by the major vendors has come at the expense of "Others" - second tier PC vendors, often focused on single national markets. Ten years ago in the same quarter "Others" accounted for a global market share of 43.6 per cent. In Gartner's latest figures, this has fallen to just 18.5 per cent, down by another 12.5 per cent, year on year.

Gartner's figures, it should be noted, include desk-top PCs, laptops and ultramobiles, including the Microsoft Surface, but exclude Chromebooks, iPads and Android tablets.