PC shipments dropped 11% worldwide in Q2, Apple's US growth slows 4.3% [u]

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
In its latest quarterly report, market research firm Gartner said PC shipments slid 11 percent worldwide for the second quarter of 2013, continuing the longest decline in the market's history.

Update: This article has been updated with estimates from research firm IDC.

During the April to June period, worldwide PC shipments dropped to 76 million units from the same period last year, a decline of 10.9 percent and the fifth consecutive quarter of decline.

According to the firm's statistics, all regions showed decline year-over-year, with the Asia/Pacific region seeing five consecutive negative quarters, while the Europe/Middle East/Asia (EMEA) market tallied its second quarter double-digit fall.

US PC
Source: Gartner


The U.S. market fared better in quarter two than all markets combined, with a decline of only 1.4 percent year-over-year on shipments of 15 million units. That number was good enough for quarter-on-quarter growth of 8.5 percent. Gartner points out that this quarter's decline was less than the past seven quarters.

?Our preliminary results indicate that this reduced market decline was attributed to solid growth in the professional market,? Kitagawa said. ?Three of the major professional PC suppliers, HP, Dell and Lenovo, all registered better than U.S. average growth rate. The end of Windows XP support potentially drove the remaining PC refresh in the U.S. professional market.?

HP managed to hang on to first place with 26.4 percent of the market. The company shipped almost 4 million computers for a slight decline of 0.05 percent year-over-year. Dell was only one of two top-five manufacturers to show positive growth for the quarter, with a 6.4 percent bump on shipments of 3.7 million units. The company now owns 24.6 percent of the U.S. market.

Apple came in a distant third with 11.6 percent of the market, shipping 1.7 million Macs for the quarter to be down 4.3 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012. iPads were not counted as PCs in Gartner's report.

Lenovo saw the largest growth at a whopping 19.7 percent, lifting the company into fourth place overall with a 10.1 percent share of the market.

Worldwide PC
Source: Gartner


The 11 percent worldwide decline had Lenovo out in front by a small margin, with its 12.7 million units shipped reflecting a contraction of 0.6 percent compared to the year previous. HP followed in a close second with nearly 9 million units shipped for a decline of 4.8 percent.

?We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets,? said prniciap Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. ?In emerging markets, inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC. This is also accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market.?

IDC US


Research firm IDC has also released its own estimates for the U.S. PC market, and they are a bit different than Gartner's. HP and Dell are still in the lead, though IDC sees HP's numbers dropping substantially year-over-year with a negative 4.3 percent growth rate.

IDC disagrees somewhat in regard to Apple, and found the company saw growth decline only half a percentage point to take 11.5 percent of the market with 1.8 million units shipped.

Finally instead Acer was found to finish in fifth place for the second quarter after a huge 19.5 percent shrinkage in growth, with 900 thousand units shipped.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,807member
    I don't think the decline is simply due to more tablet and smart phones sales. Macs and PC's sold in the last few years are simply still fast enough to do everything anyone needs. Go back a decade and your Mac or PC would simply be out of date far sooner. WIth Macs the switch to Intel made the PPC macs obsolete. But if you have a computer capable of running Mountain Lion or Windows 8 and it does so smoothly there is simply no big incentive or reason to upgrade to a newer computer. People just don't need to upgrade as often as they used to do because their current computers can do everything they ask of them.
  • Reply 2 of 33
    If they were 12% in 2012 and 11.6% in 2013 wouldn't that be .4% difference?
  • Reply 3 of 33
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member


    Oh wow, Lenovo seems to be doing good. I really like their laptops, great stuff.

  • Reply 4 of 33
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gwmac View Post



    I don't think the decline is simply due to more tablet and smart phones sales. Macs and PC's sold in the last few years are simply still fast enough to do everything anyone needs.

    [...] 



    People just don't need to upgrade as often as they used to do because their current computers can do everything they ask of them.


    While I agree with you about not upgrading as often, technology usage worldwide for business and education is expanding as the developing world modernizes, sending lots of PCs to first time buyers in Asia and Latin America. I would think this technology expansion should easily offset any decline due to postponed upgrades. Those postponed upgrades may ultimately be permanent due to the contraction of personal desktop computing at home in US, Europe and Japan. This is probably the most significant factor for the decline because PCs are increasingly being supplanted by iPads for light duty computing.

  • Reply 5 of 33
    constable odoconstable odo Posts: 1,041member
    It looks like Timid Cook is going to take a hefty pay-cut come the end of this quarter. He should never have tied his salary to Apple's share performance. That's almost like he was asking for rope so he could hang himself. Apple appears to be going down a slippery slope in core value and there's probably nothing anyone can do about it. Hardware sales don't seem to be cutting it anymore and it's all about search, ads and media content delivery. Maybe Apple will be able to outlast some of the older hardware or less financially-sound companies and be the last man standing. It's rather odd that Microsoft hasn't been affected by the Wintel PC pullback at all. The company's share value seems stronger than ever.
  • Reply 6 of 33
    cincyteecincytee Posts: 403member

    Quote:


    Apple's US share contracts 4.3%




     


    Uhhh, no, Apple's US share contracted 3.3% -- the percentage equivalent of a 0.4 percentage-point drop from 12 percent. Two ways to say it; you missed both.

     

  • Reply 7 of 33
    plagenplagen Posts: 151member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gwmac View Post



    I don't think the decline is simply due to more tablet and smart phones sales. Macs and PC's sold in the last few years are simply still fast enough to do everything anyone needs. Go back a decade and your Mac or PC would simply be out of date far sooner. WIth Macs the switch to Intel made the PPC macs obsolete. But if you have a computer capable of running Mountain Lion or Windows 8 and it does so smoothly there is simply no big incentive or reason to upgrade to a newer computer. People just don't need to upgrade as often as they used to do because their current computers can do everything they ask of them.


    Exactly! My 2009 MacBook Pro still does everything I need, especially after HD to SSD replacement.

  • Reply 8 of 33
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    It looks like Timid Cook is going to take a hefty pay-cut come the end of this quarter. He should never have tied his salary to Apple's share performance. That's almost like he was asking for rope so he could hang himself. Apple appears to be going down a slippery slope in core value and there's probably nothing anyone can do about it. Hardware sales don't seem to be cutting it anymore and it's all about search, ads and media content delivery. Maybe Apple will be able to outlast some of the older hardware or less financially-sound companies and be the last man standing. It's rather odd that Microsoft hasn't been affected by the Wintel PC pullback at all. The company's share value seems stronger than ever.

    I wonder what happens if you add iPad sales? As for MS, businesses upgrade every three years. More WinOS sales to them.
  • Reply 9 of 33
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    gwmac wrote: »
    I don't think the decline is simply due to more tablet and smart phones sales. Macs and PC's sold in the last few years are simply still fast enough to do everything anyone needs. Go back a decade and your Mac or PC would simply be out of date far sooner. WIth Macs the switch to Intel made the PPC macs obsolete. But if you have a computer capable of running Mountain Lion or Windows 8 and it does so smoothly there is simply no big incentive or reason to upgrade to a newer computer. People just don't need to upgrade as often as they used to do because their current computers can do everything they ask of them.

    I agree with you. In addition, I think that reliability, in general, is better (thus reducing common reason to replace computer). I'm in IT since late '80 and I recall having much more issues with RAM and HDDs, relative to number of customers I was in touch with back in the days. Even later on, there were occasional "epidemics" of frequent problems - like bulging capacitors in early to mid 2000, quite common on P4 motherboards from that era. But it is my opinion that quality went uphill from Core 2 introduction, and hasn't dropped since.

    I have recently retired my wife's old Toshiba laptop (2006) and old AMD 64 X2 desktop (2005) for hardware problems, but both were used and abused well over 5 years. I still have older AMD 64 single core system and one P4 in use at my home. I wouldn't mind replacing them with something fresher, but the simple truth is that they serve their purposes well and, not being mission critical, I just can't justify replacing them just because... so the money I'd spend on new hardware goes to new camera, PS4 budget, vacation... you name it.
  • Reply 10 of 33
    richard getzrichard getz Posts: 1,142member

    Quote:


    In emerging markets, inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC.


     




     


    I don't see this as 'deferring' the purchase of a PC, but the new normal for consumption of email, internet, photos, movies, games. 

  • Reply 11 of 33
    relic wrote: »
    Oh wow, Lenovo seems to be doing good. I really like their laptops, great stuff.

    I have a Thinkpad T520. I think the MacBook Pro Retina is better assembled, better made. And aesthetically more beautiful.
  • Reply 12 of 33
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    It looks like Timid Cook is going to take a hefty pay-cut come the end of this quarter. He should never have tied his salary to Apple's share performance. That's almost like he was asking for rope so he could hang himself. Apple appears to be going down a slippery slope in core value and there's probably nothing anyone can do about it. Hardware sales don't seem to be cutting it anymore and it's all about search, ads and media content delivery. Maybe Apple will be able to outlast some of the older hardware or less financially-sound companies and be the last man standing. It's rather odd that Microsoft hasn't been affected by the Wintel PC pullback at all. The company's share value seems stronger than ever.

    What tripe.

    Again, equating share price with a company's actually performance and health.
  • Reply 13 of 33
    rednivalrednival Posts: 331member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Relic View Post


    Oh wow, Lenovo seems to be doing good. I really like their laptops, great stuff.



     


    Businesses love Lenovo.  Some also like Dell (their business computers are way better than their cheap consumer crap).  That's why those two are staying in better shape.  Businesses perform more regular upgrades, so Dell and Lenovo are both in a good position.  The new Mac Pro could help Apple as well.


     


    If Apple is interested in seeing a turn around in Mac sales, they need to figure out how to make them more appealing to businesses that typically buy Windows.  Now is a great time to make a move since Windows 8 isn't sitting very well with businesses.  

  • Reply 14 of 33
    jfanningjfanning Posts: 3,398member
    macroads wrote: »
    If they were 12% in 2012 and 11.6% in 2013 wouldn't that be .4% difference?

    No, as there is a difference between percentage points and percentages
  • Reply 16 of 33
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    I have a Thinkpad T520. I think the MacBook Pro Retina is better assembled, better made. And aesthetically more beautiful.


     


    I have a Thinkpad X230T, great little laptop, I get about 20 hours with the external battery slice.

  • Reply 17 of 33
    arlorarlor Posts: 532member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by rednival View Post


    If Apple is interested in seeing a turn around in Mac sales, they need to figure out how to make them more appealing to businesses that typically buy Windows.  Now is a great time to make a move since Windows 8 isn't sitting very well with businesses.  



     


    I don't know that it matters that Windows 8 is unloved. My employer adopted XP on all PCs and kept it through the whole Vista period, then switched to Windows 7 without ever using Vista. At the moment it looks like we'll skip Windows 8. When we buy new computers, we're putting Windows 7 on them from our master license. Most of our PCs are from Dell, and we don't buy the OS with the computer; they just come empty. 


     


    Businesses tend to be pretty conservative about updates. Apple would probably fare better if they facilitated that more. OS X updates more frequently than Windows, and Apple stops bug and security updates sooner for old versions. Microsoft is still committed to supporting XP (4 versions back) until 2014 at the moment; Apple only meaningfully supports the current and previous version of its OS. There's also less backward compatibility. Even iTunes currently requires 10.6.8; is that really necessary?


     


    It would probably help simply to be clearer about it. Microsoft has scads of detail about product support lifecycles at http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/default.aspx?LN=en-us&x=9&y=10&c2=1173. When you search for appropriate phrases for Apple (try "apple support lifecycle"), you find IT professionals talking to each other in support forums about where to find Apple's policy, and nobody seems to know the answer. Businesses like clear policy statements before they make big commitments.


     


    Apple's done better in these regards with its tablets and phones than its computers, and I think that's part of why they're so much more widely adopted by businesses. 

  • Reply 18 of 33
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    See the big picture people. Any contraction for Apple is irrelevant seeing as how they are supplying almost all the tablets that are replacing PCs in this 'post PC era'.
  • Reply 19 of 33
    agramonteagramonte Posts: 345member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Relic View Post


    Oh wow, Lenovo seems to be doing good. I really like their laptops, great stuff.



    yeah, we just set up a few IdeaPad U310 (13, i5) and our staff went crazy for them... nice little laptop. Now we testing the ThinkPad 2 for sales people - Lenovo making good stuff.

  • Reply 20 of 33
    maccentricmaccentric Posts: 263member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post



    It looks like Timid Cook is going to take a hefty pay-cut come the end of this quarter. He should never have tied his salary to Apple's share performance. That's almost like he was asking for rope so he could hang himself. Apple appears to be going down a slippery slope in core value and there's probably nothing anyone can do about it. Hardware sales don't seem to be cutting it anymore and it's all about search, ads and media content delivery. Maybe Apple will be able to outlast some of the older hardware or less financially-sound companies and be the last man standing. It's rather odd that Microsoft hasn't been affected by the Wintel PC pullback at all. The company's share value seems stronger than ever.


     


    It is quite hard to take seriously the writings of people who use childish expressions such as "Timid Cook."


     


    I am sure Tim Cook, having more information about the internal state of Apple is better poised to make a decision regarding his compensation than you are, especially since I believe he has the time horizon to outlast the irrationality of Wall Street.  Look at companies such as Amazon and Netflix, totally overvalued, compare them to Apple which is in my opinion undervalued at the moment.  Sentiment can change very quickly though.  If Apple were valued today at the same P/E as Microsoft, it would be at $750 per share.  I see most of Microsoft's businesses contracting, while Apple's are expanding.

Sign In or Register to comment.