The global PC market, inclusive of desktops, notebooks and workstations, grew 4.7% in Q3 2019 to 70.9 million units, the best growth performance for the segment since Q1 2012, when shipments grew 5.4%. Lenovo and HP placed first and second, with impressive performances particularly in Japan and the United States. Lenovo shipped a total of 17.3 million units while HP shipped 16.7 million units. Third-placed Dell also grew in line with the market at 5.2% and shipped 12.1 million PCs this quarter. Apple and Acer rounded the top five, taking fourth and fifth places respectively, also growing shipments albeit by 1.5% and 0.8%. Canalys however warns that this is a short-term boost, effects of which could wear off as early as Q1 2020.
Multiple factors continued to contribute to demand in PC sales, including upgrades to Windows 10, and seasonal inventory stocking for the holidays, but the market was given further impetus by macroeconomic conditions. The top five vendors consolidated their market share to 79.6% of the total PC market in Q3 2019, with market leaders HP and Lenovo taking a lion’s share of 48% together.
“The PC market high is refreshing. However, there is a limit to how quickly leading vendors can ramp production .Intel remains a key bottleneck, with pressure on its 14nm CPU supply not likely to see improvement until Q1 2020. The Intel CPU shortage provided leading PC vendors an advantage over smaller rivals drove HP and Lenovo to their best Q3 performance to-date. Going forward, leading vendors will have an opportunity to further consolidate the market and squeeze smaller vendors’ market share, if the Intel supply is not able to satisfy the spike in orders,” said Rushabh Doshi, Research Director of Canalys’ Mobility services.
