The global decline of PC sales reached almost 10pc in the most recent quarter, with Gartner reporting Latin America’s 32.4pc fall as the steepest drop of all.
A sixth consecutive quarterly drop in global PC sales has seen total numbers drop to 2007 levels, with less than 65m shipments recorded in Q1 of 2016.
Among issues like currency exchange rates and economic downturns rests a huge obstacle for manufacturers like Lenovo, HP and Dell, emerging markets are simply choosing mobile – smartphones are the priority.
An uptick in business sales on the back of the Windows 10 rollout is expected towards the end of this year. But Brazil dragging Latin America down almost a third – which Gartner puts down to economic and political instability – is the standout stat.
“The ongoing decline in US PC shipments showed that the installed base is still shrinking, a factor that played across developed economies. Low oil prices drove economic contraction in Latin America and Russia, changing them from drivers of growth to market laggards,” said Mikako Kitagawa, analyst at Gartner.
In Asia, the overall decline was ‘just’ 5.1pc, with the Chinese economy a growing concern. However, a side note offered by Gartner is interesting, which states that a lengthening of PC lifecycles “as many consumers are waiting until their PC breaks down before purchasing a new one” is having a significant impact.
In Europe, stable demand in Germany and the UK was offset by the likes of France, which dragged the average down by 10pc – Gartner claims the transition to HD TVs in France was an issue.
Lenovo maintained its No 1 spot and, despite dropping about 1m sales in comparison to this time last year, it upped its share from 18.8pc to 19.3pc. Second is HP, which lost the same number of sales but maintained its 17.6pc share.
Dell’s sales remained relatively stagnant, which saw it too increase its share to 14.1pc with Asus (8.3pc) and Apple (7.1pc) both upping their sales as well as rounding out the top five.
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