IDC: PC Shipments in 2019 Grew for the First Time in Eight Years

IDC: PC Shipments in 2019 Grew for the First Time in Eight Years
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The worldwide market for traditional PCs finished an impressive 2019 with fourth quarter growth of 4.8% year over year, according to preliminary results from IDC. Global shipments during the quarter beat forecast expectations at just under 71.8 million units, the highest single quarter shipment volume in four years (4Q15). Overall, global shipments grew 2.7% in 2019, the first full year of PC growth since the market grew 1.7% in 2011.

"This past year was a wild one in the PC world, which resulted in impressive market growth that ultimately ended seven consecutive years of market contraction," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "The market will still have its challenges ahead, but this year was a clear sign that PC demand is still there despite the continued insurgence of emerging form factors and the demand for mobile computing.

The holiday quarter capped an impressive run for PCs in 2019, where three out of four quarters delivered year-over-year growth. The storyline in the commercial sector for most of the year was around the momentum driven by businesses transitioning PCs over to Windows 10 before the end of support for Windows 7 arrives this month. The continued business push specifically helped the top Lenovo, HP, and Dell to further consolidate their hold on the market with a combined share of just over 65% in 2019 (up from 63% in 2018).

In addition, the impact of several other market challenges declined in the quarter. Concerns about CPU availability continued but were helped by the adoption of AMD CPUs while signs of easing trade tensions and other industry drivers helped to increase market uptake for the most important quarter of the year.

"Despite the positivity surrounding 2019, the next twelve to eighteen months will be challenging for traditional PCs as the majority of Windows 10 upgrades will be in the rearview mirror and lingering concerns around component shortages and trade negotiations get ironed out," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Although new technologies such as 5G and dual- and folding-screen devices along with an uptake in gaming PCs will provide an uplift, these will take some time to coalesce.

The traditional PC market in the USA continued to see positive momentum in the fourth quarter of 2019, recording single-digit growth compared to the same period a year ago. Desktop and notebook categories both saw an increase in shipments as Windows 7 end of service (EOS) continued to loom large over the commercial segment, while the holiday season and fading concerns about tariffs contributed to a strong end of the year.

The EMEA PC market continued its momentum in 4Q19, thanks to positive results from both desktops and notebooks. Despite worsening of the CPU supply chain from Intel, which is expected to impact premium commercial products, the OEMs have been successful in securing components to deliver solid single-digit growth in the region.

Lenovo retained the top position and made further share gains compared to 2018, finishing the year with a market share of 24.3%. HP volumes grew 4.8% in 2019 with strong fourth quarter growth of 6.9%. Dell retained the third position and grew its market share 0.5 points over 2018 reaching 17.5% worldwide. Apple's Mac volumes saw a decline in 4Q19 with 4.7 million units shipped, down 5.3% year over year. Acer rounded out the top 5 with 6.1% market share during the quarter and 6.4% for the year.