Worldwide PC shipments reached 79.4 million units in the third quarter of 2014, a 0.5% decline from Q3 of last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner.
For the first time, the sum of the top five vendors’ share reached two-thirds of the worldwide PC shipments, as all of the top five showed stronger growth compared to the industry average. Gartner said that scale is one important success criteria for vendors trying survive in the PC market. Some vendors have already scaled back or have withdrawn from the PC business, namely Sony and Samsung, and Toshiba joined them in Q3 (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 37).
Lenovo extended its position as the global leader in PC shipments, accounting for 19.8% of the market and did especially well in EMEA where it achieved more than 40% growth year on year. Lenovo also saw YoY growth in Asia/Pacific, despite the region showing a decline overall. While its overall growth rate slightly declined in PC shipments, HP was able to post single-digit growth to maintain the number two position worldwide. HP was the leading vendor in EMEA and the US. This week, HP also announced its intention to split the company into two companies (see Front Page story), though Gartner thinks that the impact to the PC business operation should not be significant. Dell had another strong quarter and the results indicate that Dell
