PC industry ended the year with 3.7 percent decline in 4Q16 shipments.
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 72.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.7 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. For the year, 2016 PC shipments totaled 269.7 million units, a 6.2 percent decline from 2015. PC shipments have declined annually since 2012.
“Stagnation in the PC market continued into the fourth quarter of 2016 as holiday sales were generally weak due to the fundamental change in PC buying behavior,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “The broad PC market has been static as technology improvements have not been sufficient to drive real market growth. There have been innovative form factors like 2-in-1s and thin and light notebooks, as well as technology improvements, such as longer battery life. This end of the market has grown fast, led by engaged PC users who put high priority on PCs. However, the market driven by PC enthusiasts is not big enough to drive overall market growth.”
Ms. Kitagawa said that although the overall PC market will see stagnation, there are growth opportunities within the market, such as the engaged PC user market, the business market and gaming. However, these growth areas will not prevent the overall decline of the PC market, at least in the next year.
Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q16 (Thousands of Units)
| Company | 4Q16 Shipments | 4Q16 Market Share (%) | 4Q15 Shipments | 4Q15 Market Share (%) | 4Q16-4Q15 Growth (%) |
| Lenovo | 15,781 | 21.7 | 15,535 | 20.6 | 1.6 |
| HP Inc. | 14,808 | 20.4 | 14,204 | 18.8 | 4.3 |
| Dell | 10,723 | 14.8 | 10,175 | 13.5 | 5.4 |
| Asus | 5,452 | 7.5 | 5,960 | 7.9 | -8.5 |
| Apple | 5,440 | 7.5 | 5,312 | 7.0 | 2.4 |
| Acer Group | 4,999 | 6.9 | 5,228 | 6.9 | -4.4 |
| Others | 15,408 | 21.2 | 18,970 | 25.2 | -18.8 |
| Total | 72,611 | 100.0 | 75,384 | 100.0 | -3.7 |
“Similar to low-key back to school sales in 3Q16, big sales events, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and holiday sales are no longer effective marketing opportunities for PCs since PC purchases are generally driven by a ‘need,’ rather than ‘want,’ motivation,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “PCs are not a preferred gift item any longer, as consumers gravitate toward other consumer electronics, such as virtual personal assistant (VPA) speakers, virtual reality (VR) head-mounted devices, and wearables. Vendors and channels did not have high expectations for the holiday PC sales, so the marketing campaigns remained relatively quiet.”
PC shipments in EMEA surpassed 21.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.4 percent decline year over year. PC shipments to the consumer market were driven by good Black Friday sales in Western European countries, such as the U.K. and France, especially on traditional notebooks, ultramobile clamshells, the hybrid form factor and gaming PCs. Gartner’s early estimates also show PC shipment growth in the business segment, led by Windows 10 deployments during the fourth quarter.
