Tablets Responsible for Slow in PC Sales

01 2013 Tuesday

A 4.9 percent decline in global PC sales during the fourth quarter of 2012 can be blamed on one thing: the growing popularity of tablets, a new report has found.

Worldwide PC sales dipped significantly from the fourth quarter in 2011 to the fourth quarter of last year, according to a report by Gartner, Inc. Analysts. In 2012, 90.3 million units were shipped.

“Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by ‘cannibalizing’ PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs,” Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said in a press release.

Consumers are increasingly shifting to tablets for personal use and are performing creative and administrative tasks on a shared PC, the Gartner report said, adding it is unlikely buyers will replace older secondary PCs in their homes.

“This transformation was triggered by the availability of compelling low-cost tablets in 2012, and will continue until the installed base of PCs declines to accommodate tablets as the primary consumption device,” Kitagawa said. “On the positive side for vendors, the disenfranchised PCs are those with lighter configurations, which mean that we should see an increase in PC average selling prices (ASPs) as users replace machines used for richer applications, rather than for consumption.”

Tablets and Smartphones have also usurped PCs as the technological Christmas gifts of choice. And while there was uptake of affordably-priced notebooks as a part of mega holiday deals, it did little to boost holiday PC sales, analysts said.

The launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 also has had little impact on PC shipments thus far.

“PC vendors offered somewhat lackluster form factors in their Windows 8 offerings and missed the excitement of touch,” the press release said. “New products are coming to market, and this could drive churn within the installed base.”

HP regained the top spot in global PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2012, but the company’s shipments did not grow compared to 2011. Lenovo dropped to the No. 2 position, but experienced the best growth rate (8.2 percent) among the top five PC vendors worldwide.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q12 (Units)

Company	4Q12 Shipments	4Q12 Market Share (%)	4Q11 Shipments	4Q11 Market Share (%)	4Q12-4Q11 Growth (%)
HP	14,645,041	16.2	14,711,280	15.5	-0.5
Lenovo	13,976,668	15.5	12,915,766	13.6	8.2
Dell	9,206,391	10.2	11,633,387	12.2	-20.9
Acer Group	8,622,701	9.5	9,690,624	10.2	-11.0
ASUS	6,528,228	7.2	6,133,042	6.5	6.4
Others	37,393,913	41.4	39,934,184	42.0	-6.4
Total	90,372,942	100.0	95,018,284	100.0	-4.9

PC shipments reached 352.7 million units last year, a 3.5 percent decline from 2011 (as seen below). HP retained the top spot in the global PC market, accounting for 16 percent of the market. Lenovo was the No. 2 vendor with 14.8 percent market share while Asus showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors, with shipments increasing 17.1 percent.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2012 (Units)

Company	2012 Shipments	2012 Market Share (%)	2011 Shipments	2011 Market Share (%)	2012-2011 Growth (%)
HP	56,508,218	16.0	60,553,740	16.6	-6.7
Lenovo	52,159,229	14.8	45,688,493	12.5	14.2
Dell	37,611,747	10.7	42,864,265	11.7	-12.3
Acer Group	36,661,066	10.4	39,282,791	10.8	-6.7
ASUS	24,206,696	6.9	20,678,302	5.7	17.1
Others	145,554,478	41.3	156,278,584	42.8	-6.9
Total	352,701,433	100.0	365,364,175	100.0	-3.5