The EMEA PC market is up by 3% Y-o-Y in Q3 2019, Gartner reports, as shipments total 19.4 million units thanks to "strong" demand from businesses across W. Europe, except the UK due to (perhaps obvious) Brexit-related reasons.
Desktops remain a popular form factor with many European businesses, while mobile PC shipments see a return to growth after 2 quarters of decline. Results are less rosy on a global perspective, since Q3 2019 shipments total 68m units, a 1.1% Y-o-Y increase compared to the 67m units of Q3 2018.
“The Windows 10 refresh cycle continued to be the primary driver for growth across all regions, although the magnitude of the impact varied according to local market conditions and the stage of the refresh cycle,” the analyst says. “For example, in Japan, PC shipments grew 55% Y-o-Y in Q3 2019, driven by the Windows 10 refresh cycle and a pending sales tax change. This strong growth helped propel the total worldwide PC market to growth.”
The Intel CPU shortage brings opportunities to alternative CPU vendors, namely AMD and Qualcomm. For instance, a team up with Microsoft has Qualcomm promote the "always connected PC" equipped with LTE capabilities. The segment is still to take off, but most major PC vendors are releasing mobile PCs with a built-in cellular antenna, and Microsoft is expected to release an LTE-capable mobile PC soon.
The top PC vendors see improving PC profit margins thanks to declining prices of components such as DRAM and SSDs. Margin improvements strengthen the already "significant" position of the top 3 vendors-- Lenovo, HP and Dell-- and all three, together with Acer, experience Y-o-Y shipment growth in Q3 2019.
Lenovo holds the top position in Q3 2019 with 24.7% market share and 5.8% Y-o-Y shipment growth. The company shows strong growth in EMEA, as well as Japan and L. America. HP follows with a 2nd quarter of Y-o-Y shipment growth (4.6% Y-o-Y), and sees double-digit global desktop shipment growth. In 3rd place is Dell with 5.5% growth and 16.6% market share.
All said, one has to keep in mind Gartner PC statistics do not include Chromebook numbers. Chromebook growth has actually outpaced PC growth since Gartner started tracking the market in 2012, but the market is starting to show some saturation. This is especially noticeable in N. America, where the Google-powered laptops see a first decline since the 2011 launch.
Go Gartner Says WW PC Shipments Grew 1.1% in Third Quarter of 2019
