PC shipments drop with weak demand, but Lenovo pushes HP

Peter Dinham
Sunday, 15 January 2012 22:14

IT Industry - Market

Worldwide shipments of PCs dropped towards the end of last year as consumer demand slowed. Ultrabooks, introduced to the market in the holiday season, didn't attract consumers, and the overall decline in PC shipments for the fourth quarter of 2011 was 1.4 percent.

In its latest market report, Gartner says the decline in the fourth quarter followed two quarters of positive growth. The analyst firm says worldwide PC shipments in the quarter totalled 92.2 million units, a 1.4 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2010, and in line with the firm's forecast of a one percent decline.

'Continuously low consumer PC demand resulted in weak holiday PC shipments,' said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. 'While economic uncertainty in Western Europe had an effect on consumer PC shipments, expectations of a healthier economic outlook in North America could not stimulate consumer PC demand in that region. The healthy professional PC market as well as growth in emerging markets could not compensate for the weaknesses in mature markets, with overall growth still negative.'

According to Gartner, hard-disk drive (HDD) shortages triggered by the October 2011 floods in Thailand had a limited impact on fourth-quarter PC shipments and prices. However, Gartner analysts said a major impact will be felt, and this is expected to materialise in the first half of 2012, and potentially continue throughout 2012, with the shortages temporarily lowering PC shipment growth during this year.

'Ultrabooks were quietly introduced into the market during the 4Q11 holiday season,' Ms. Kitagawa said. 'Ultrabooks didn't seem to draw consumers' attention. Consumers had very little understanding and awareness of ultrabooks, and only a small group of consumers was willing to pay the price premium for such models. However, as has been seen this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show, 2012 is a big debut stage for ultrabooks.'

Gartner reports that HP retained its number one position in the fourth quarter of 2011, despite a shipment decline of 16.2 percent year over year. 'While the company's new CEO, Meg Whitman, cleared up some confusion surrounding its PC business, its 4Q11 results were affected by the noise around this issue. HP also had to battle against aggressive pricing from competitors and deal with weak consumer PC demand in the holiday season,' Kitagawa says.

Lenovo experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors, as its PC shipments grew 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, and Gartner says the company further cemented its place as the number two vendor in global PC shipments. Gartner attributes Lenovo's to its 'aggressive pricing in both the professional and consumer markets.'

On other vendors, Gartner says Dell had a good quarter with shipment growth in most regions and, while the consumer market remained a weak point, it says that Dell enjoyed stable growth in the professional sector, driven by upgrades to Windows 7.

'Asia/Pacific continued to be the major growth market for Dell, as it achieved 30 percent growth in the region. Asus stayed in the No. 5 position despite generally weak consumer sales. Asus's shift from mini-notebooks to regular notebooks was successful, as close to 80 percent of Asus mobile PCs shipments were regular notebooks in the fourth quarter of 2011,' Kitagawa said.

In Asia/Pacific, PC shipments reached 30.4 million units, an 8.5 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010. The market performance was below Gartner's anticipated growth of 10.6 percent, and the firm's preliminary findings show weaker shipment growth in China, India and Thailand.

Gartner reports that PC shipments in Japan declined 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, as shipments totalled 3.9 million units, but it says this was better than the firm's earlier projection of an eight percent decline. The professional market showed a high double-digit decline, while the consumer market saw mid-single-digit growth.

For the year, worldwide PC shipments totalled 352.8 million units in 2011, a 0.5 percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner, with the weak consumer PC market, particularly in mature markets, a major contributor to this stagnation, despite good growth in the professional market. Emerging markets grew steadily, driven by low initial PC penetration.

Table 1: Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q11 (Units)

Company    4Q11 Shipments    4Q11 Market Share (%)    4Q10 Shipments    4Q10 Market Share (%)    4Q11-4Q10 Growth (%)
HP    14,712,266    16.0    17,554,181    18.8    -16.2
Lenovo    12,931,136    14.0    10,516,772    11.3    23.0
Dell    11,633,880    12.6    10,796,317    11.6    7.8
Acer Group    9,823,214    10.7    12,043,606    12.9    -18.4
Asus    6,243,118    6.8    5,180,913    5.5    20.5
Others    36,827,666    40.0    37,358,786    40.0    -1.4
Total    92,171,280    100.0    93,450,575    100.0    -1.4
*Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.

Table 3
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2011 (Units)

Company    2011 Shipments    2011 Market Share (%)    2010 Shipments    2010 Market Share (%)    2011-2010 Growth (%)
HP    60,554,726    17.2    62,741,274    17.9    -3.5
Lenovo    45,703,863    13.0    38,180,444    10.9    19.7
Dell    42,864,759    12.1    42,119,272    12.0    1.8
Acer Group    39,415,381    11.2    48,758,542    13.9    -19.2
ASUS    20,768,465    5.9    18,902,723    5.4    9.9
Others    143,499,792    40.7    140,198,078    40.0    2.4
Total    352,806,984    100.0    350,900,332    100.0    0.5
*Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.