PC shipments decline worldwide as market readies for Windows 10

Global PC shipments plunged in their worst decline in almost two years last quarter, according to analyst houses Gartner and IDC.

From an application point of view, smartphones and solid-state drives (SSDs) will continue to drive semiconductor market growth, while the traditional PC segment will experience the greatest decline, with production units down 8.7 per cent in 2015, slightly weaker than the previous quarter’s forecast. The vendor ended 2Q14 with a volume of 4.33 million, a significant decline from the prior quarter and year ago volumes. Total PC hard drive shipments fell by 14% year over year, with desktop units accounting for the entire decline. Analysts emphasized that these inhibitors are temporary events, and they are not changing the PC market’s structure.

Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa said: “The price hike of PCs became more apparent in some regions due to a sharp appreciation of the USA dollar against local currencies”. The PC vendor has avoided the price competition affecting other players and may be benefitting from some of the uncertainty around the launch of Windows 10, along with refreshed products like the 12-inch MacBook and a relative concentration of shipments in the US. ‘We’re expecting the Windows 10 launch to go relatively well, though many users will opt for a free OS upgrade rather than buying a new PC, ‘ Loverde explained. Secondly, the worldwide PC market experienced unusually positive desk-based growth past year due to the end of Windows XP support. Lastly, the Windows 10 launch scheduled for the third quarter of 2015 has created self-regulated inventory control. HP showed a steep decline in EMEA, which was potentially due to the currency impact.

Now what: Any company that depends on PC sales is going to have a rough time this year, assuming the PC market behaves like IDC is predicting.

The slump last quarter took a toll on some PC-dependent companies, with microprocessor provider Advanced Micro Devices Inc. lowering its quarterly sales forecast on Monday, and memory-chip maker Micron Technologies Inc. doing the same last month.

In addition, manufacturers’ channel partners reduced inventory in the second quarter in preparation for new devices running Windows 10, which led to shipment declines. Analysts said this could be partly attributed to Dell’s lower presence in the consumer market, which created less impact to Dell from the Windows 10 prelaunch inventory control.

Dell shipped 9.5 million units, clocking a decline of 8.7 percent.

HP maintained the top position for PC shipments in the United States in the second quarter of 2015 despite a 10.1% decline.

Asia Pacific PC shipments reached 24.2 million units in the second quarter of 2015, a 2.9% decline from the same period past year.