First Sign of Growth for Worldwide PC Shipments After Seven Consecutive Years of Decline. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 70.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2019, a 2.3% increase from the fourth quarter of 2018, according to preliminary results by Gartner. For the year, 2019 PC shipments surpassed 261 million units, showing 0.6% growth from 2018.
“The PC market experienced growth for the first time since 2011, driven by vibrant business demand for Windows 10 upgrades, particularly in the U.S., EMEA and Japan .We expect this growth to continue through this year even after Windows 7 support comes to an end this month, as many businesses in emerging regions such as China, Eurasia and the emerging Asia/Pacific have not yet upgraded ,” said Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner.
Despite these chip constraints, the top three vendors increased their combined market share through 2019 to the highest level since Gartner began tracking PC data. Lenovo, HP Inc. and Dell accounted for nearly 65% of PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019, up from just more than 61% in the fourth quarter of 2018.
