Second quarter results show smallest decline in printer shipments for two years as consumer interest returns.
IDC reported the second quarter results for the PC market, with worldwide shipments totalling 74.4 million units, indicating a year-on-year decline of 1.7 percent – the smallest decline since the second quarter of 2012.
Continued business PC replacements and returning consumer interest have been attributed to the results, which are significantly better than the projected decline of 7.1 percent for the quarter. IDC stated that most vendors experienced “solid growth” in the quarter, with desktop shipments stronger than expected in some areas “signalling continued business buying”; while the consumer side was also stronger than expected, with growing demand among the lower-priced PC models and Chromebooks.
The strongest growth in terms of regions was seen in Europe, the US and Canada; while Japan would have joined the list had it not been for the “dramatic surge” seen in the last quarter and “new taxes that limited second quarter growth”. Emerging regions, on the other hand, continue to see declining PC volumes due to weaker economies and political issues.
Continuing upgrades of Windows XP fuelled growth in the US and EMEA, with the consumer segment stabilising with the help of “retail acceptance of emerging product categories such as Chromebooks and ultraslims”; particularly in the US and Western Europe. Shipments in the Asia/Pacific region meanwhile were down nearly double-digits, with the region experiencing its ninth consecutive decline.
In terms of vendors, while the top five grew 9.8 percent year-on-year in 2Q2014, the rest of the market decline 18.5 percent. Lenovo remained market leader as it showed “continued aggressive expansion and pricing strategies”; growing in double digits in nearly all markets. HP followed with growth exceeding 10 percent – the OEM’s highest growth since 2Q2010. Its main sources of growth were EMEA and mature markets, along with public sector notebook shipments.
In third position was Dell, which shipped nearly 10.5 million units – its highest quarter in over two years; with the company continuing to “tighten its channel relationships since its privatisation” and aggressively work to streamline its operations and partner relationships. Next was Acer, which continued to diversify its business through mobile devices and cloud storage. While its PC volumes declined 2.5 percent, this was a “marked improvement” over recent trends. Finally in fifth place was ASUS, which grew 3.3 percent due to strong shipments of entry and mid-level notebooks, as well as its efforts to “capture opportunities created by the sale of Sony’s PC division”.
Commenting on the results, Loren Loverde, Vice President, Worldwide PC Trackers at IDC, said: “The recent strength in mature regions is a positive sign. However, an important part of this strength is driven by the rebound from weaker demand last year and to potentially short-term replacement activity. We can look for some recovery in emerging regions going forward, but it may coincide with slower growth in mature regions. We do not see the recent gains as a motive to raise the long-term outlook although 2014 growth could get closer to flat, rather than the May projection of -6 percent.”
Jay Chou, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide PC Trackers at IDC, added: “The better than expected results seem to arise from two places. One encouraging factor was a good intake of lower-end systems, including Chromebooks, which coincides with the recent slowing in tablet growth and perhaps signals the beginning of some stabilisation on the consumer side. In addition, a sizable number of PCs are still running Windows XP and the impetus to upgrade them continued to boost shipments in the second quarter.”