Following a sixth consecutive quarter of declines, PC shipments in 2016’s opening three months sunk to their lowest level in almost a decade.
Figures from Gartner reveal that worldwide PC shipments totalled 64.8 million units in Q1 2016, a 9.6 per cent decline year on year.
This is the first quarter that shipment have fallen below 65 million units since 2007. Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said the deterioration of local currencies against the US dollar played a major role in the decline.
“Our early results also show there was an inventory build-up from holiday sales in the fourth quarter of 2015,” she said. “All major regions showed year-over-year shipment declines, with Latin America showing the steepest drop, where PC shipments declined 32.4 per cent.
“The Latin American PC market was intensely impacted by Brazil, where the problematic economy and political instability adversely affected the market. 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.”
Gartner claims that PCs are not being adopted in new households as much as they were in the past, especially in emerging markets. It claims that smartphones are the priority in these markets.
Lenovo maintained the number one position in worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of 2016 but saw a 7.2 per cent decline in shipments year on year. HP Inc came in second with 11.4 million shipments in Q1, down nine per cent from Q1 2015.
PC shipments in EMEA totalled 19.5 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a decline of 10 per cent year over year.
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