PC industry shipped 71 mn units in Q3: IDC
12 Oct 2015
The PC industry shipped 71 million units in the third quarter of 2015, marking a year-over-year decline of almost 11 per cent, which came in even worse than 9.2 per cent decline projected by analysts.
The figures are drawn from IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC tracker. The bad news was in line with expectations that the third quarter would face challenging financial conditions as part of a transition period with Windows.
According to IDC, the industry was focused on liquidating the Windows 8 inventory so as to make room for new models carrying Windows 10 and the new Intel Skylake processor. Vendors were at the same time, working against currency exchange rates thanks to a stronger dollar.
"The PC market continues to contract as expected, but we remain optimistic about future shipments," said Jay Chou, research manager for IDC Worldwide PC Tracker, newsfactor.com reported. "While PC shipments will be hampered in the short run by the availability of a free upgrade to Windows 10, the improved PC experience across user segments should drive longer-term demand for new PC hardware that is expected to help stabilize the market in 2016 and beyond."
Though the quarter saw the launch of Windows 10 according to Gartner, Microsoft's latest operating system had ''minimal impact'' on shipments during the period.
''The global PC market has experienced price increases of around 10 percent throughout the year, due to the sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar against local currencies,'' Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement. ''In the third quarter of 2015, this continued to be a major cause for weaker demand in those regions.''
Impacted regions, include Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and Latin America, which posted double-digit declines, while the Asia-Pacific region and the US were more stable.
''There is some hope in the fourth quarter,'' IDC research director Linn Huang said in a statement. ''New designs running Windows 10 and powered by Intel's new Skylake processors are coming to market and may represent the most compelling reason we've had in years for consumers to upgrade their PCs. Whether this … translates into actual sales remains to be seen.''
