Downward spiral for computer sales continues

According to Gartner, global personal computer shipments fell 5.2 per cent in the three months to June to 64.3 million units, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of decline for the industry. “A somewhat unexpected boost came from intensified inventory pull-in as cautious channel players, who had been working to pare down inventory over the last several quarters, opened up inventory constraints a bit”. However, the PC market share in the European and South American markets remain unclear as political and economic issues are ravaging the nations.

The US market saw a healthy jump in growth in the second quarter of 2016.

Isabelle Durand, another principal research analyst at Gartner, commented: “Post-Brexit sterling was sharply weaker against the dollar, and this will trigger price increases that will likely cause downward pressure on fourth-quarter sales in the United Kingdom”.

According to IDC, Lenovo continued to be the worldwide market-leader in the second quarter of 2016, while in the US HP became the leader for PC shipments, trailed by Dell. “In Asia/Pacific, Lenovo’s shipments declined, but the decline was less than the overall average in the region”, it said.

Dell held on to third place with 16% market share, followed by Asus (7.2%) and Apple (AAPL) (7.1%). Lenovo may have extra reason to worry – its shipments shrank enough that it’s barely holding its market share lead over HP. However, IDC was expecting a decline in the neighborhood of 7.4 percent. Many businesses are evaluating Windows 10 and could also upgrade. The others including HP Inc.

IDC believes this is because although the global market is declining, the U.S. market is picking up due to a strong currency and market stability.

Over the last few quarters the world is witnessing a shift from PC users and that was no different in the second quarter of this year. However, IDC had forecast that the drop in shipments was going to be 7.4 percent, so the numbers were not as bad as expected. Gartner and IDC are both out with new reports today, however, that both show Apple is no longer immune to the slowing Global PC market. Every other region has registered a decline in unit sells on a year-over-year basis.

Dell had a productive quarter, with worldwide growth recovering to over 4 percent.

Worldwide PC shipments fell 4.5 percent.

ASUS pulled ahead of Apple for the number four spot, as Apple contends with an increasingly competitive market and awaits a refresh of its Macintosh lineup. When the software vendor release the operating system a year ago, the hope was the Windows 10-combined with systems featuring Intel’s latest processors-could to help drive sales of new PCs.