Second quarter of 2013 sees HP fall to second place in PC market, as shipments decrease less than expected.
IDC has reported that worldwide PC shipments during 2Q13 came to 75.6 million units, a fall of 11.4 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012, although the decrease was not as bad as previously predicted.
While Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) were slightly below expectations in terms of total shipments, the increase in shipments in the US made up the difference; with a number of vendors and regions beginning to focus on inventory reduction, which IDC says “could reflect planned launches of new models as well as lower inventory going into the second half of the year” whilst at the same time reflecting caution in the face of remaining challenges for the PC market.
The transition to touch-based systems running Windows 8 and competition from tablets has led to over a year of declining PC shipments; although shipments to the US declined just 1.9 percent in 2Q13 –an improvement from the double-digit declines reported in three of the past four quarters said to be due to lower volume in 2Q12 and a reduction in old inventory enabling a “more aggressive channel uptake”.
Jay Chou, Senior Analyst, IDC Worldwide PC Tracker, said: “With second quarter growth so close to forecast, we are still looking for some improvement in growth during the second half of the year. Slower growth in Europe and China reflect the risks, while the improved U.S. outlook reflects potential improvement.
“Still, the weakness in emerging markets is a threat to a core long-term growth area. In addition, while efforts by the PC ecosystem to bring down price points and embrace touch computing should make PCs more attractive, a lot still needs to be done in launching attractive products and addressing competition from devices like tablets.”
Commenting on the US’s substantial improvement in growth, Bob O’Donnell, Program Vice President, Clients and Displays, said: “The U.S. market is beginning to reflect some of the Windows XP to Windows 7 transition we’ve been expecting in the commercial PC space, as evidenced by the strong growth in the enterprise-focused Dell PC business. We’re also starting to see more stabilization in shipments, which we think is a reflection of PC lifetimes finally starting to even out after a long period of gradual increase. The end result should be more PC replacements, even if consumers and companies are selective in making replacements and wait until PCs are older before replacing them.”
Despite HP seeing growth improve over recent quarters, with a strong boost from shipments to India, it slipped to second place, with Lenovo taking the top PC vendor title as it grew faster than the market, despite growth falling 1.4 percent. The company’s slow growth is reflective of its focus on China, according to IDC, which represents over half of Lenovo’s shipments and where short-term economic and inventory challenges affected 2Q13 shipments.