Global PC shipments down 5.2% in Q2, but Garner sees signs of better times

Worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments totalled 64.3 million units in the second quarter of 2016, a 5.2 per cent decline from the second quarter of 2015, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. This was the seventh consecutive quarter of PC shipment declines, but Gartner analysts said the market is showing some signs of improvement.

''The price issue has impacted the EMEA and Latin America regions for the past year. However, PC shipment declines became rather modest in the second quarter compared with previous quarters, which suggests a fading currency impact,'' Gartner, world's leading information technology research and advisory company, said.

"All regions except North America experienced a PC shipment decline. The Latin America region was still very weak largely because of political and economic instability. PC shipments in Latin America are expected to fall below 5 million units for the second quarter of 2016, which is a decline of more than 20 per cent from the second quarter of 2015. These shipment results would be some of the lowest in the history of the Latin America PC industry,"  it said.

While the UK's vote to exit the European Union did not have a major impact in the worldwide PC results in the second quarter of 2016, Gartner analysts said Brexit could potentially create uncertainty, not only in currency, but also the entire economy beyond Europe.

"While vendors and channels generally have more optimistic expectations of PC sales compared with the past, there is still a chance to have a potential inventory built. This will depend on how PC market demand picks up in the second half of this year for both the business and consumer segments," Kitagawa said.

"The second and third quarter are typically PC buying season for the US public sectors. Positive second-quarter results could suggest healthy PC sales activities among the public sectors. There is an opportunity for a Windows 10 refresh among businesses, which we expect to see more toward the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017."

Asia / Pacific PC shipments totalled 22.7 million units in the second quarter of 2016, a 6.3 per cent decline from the second quarter of 2015. With a stagnant economy in the region, it put pressure on discretionary spending, and smartphones ranked as a higher priority to purchase than PCs. There were election activities in Australia, the Philippines and South Korea, which created a lull in IT spending from the government sector. PC shipments in China declined 6.4 per cent. Business confidence is weak in China, and this affects consumer buying patterns.

PC shipments in EMEA totalled 17.8 million units in the second quarter of 2016, a decline of 4.3 per cent year over year. The impact of the euro depreciation and resulting price increases ended with Western Europe showing a low-single-digit decline. Brexit had no impact in the second quarter beyond the steadily weaker pound since the referendum was announced in 2015. However, post-Brexit sterling was sharply weaker against the dollar, and this will cause price increases that will likely cause downward pressure on fourth-quarter sales in the UK.

These results are preliminary, Gartner underlined, and final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program.