Apple Mac The Only Survivor Among Global PC Sales Decline

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Apple is the only PC manufacturer to see growth in PC shipments. This is really commendable as worldwide PC shipments are seeing an overall decline, according to estimates released by Gartner.

Apple – the only exception

Worldwide shipments of all major PC manufacturers such as Lenovo, HP, Dell, ASUS and Acer are down except for Apple, and this has given the iPhone firm an entry in Gartner’s list of the top 5 worldwide PC vendors for the first time. For the fourth quarter, a decline of 8.3% was seen in worldwide PC shipments with 75.7 million units shipped. Acer and Lenovo saw the biggest drops.

Apple’s PC shipments accounted for 7.5% of the market with 5.7 million PCs shipped in the fourth quarter of 2015 versus the 5.5 million PCs it shipped last year, accounting for 6.7% of the market. This equaled year over year growth of 2.8%. In the U.S., Apple shipped around 2.2 million PCs in the fourth quarter, giving it 12.8% of the market and representing growth of 6.5%. In fourth quarter of 2014, the company shipped 2 million PCs,, accounting for a market share of 11.6%.

Talking of PC shipments in the U.S., Lenovo saw significant growth with 2.1 million units shipped, while ASUS shipped 1.2 million PCs to maintain its status quo. HP, Dell and all other manufacturers falling in the “other” group witnessed declines in shipments. Total PC sales in the fourth quarter were at 16.9 million in the United States, representing a decline of 3.1% compared to same quarter last year.

PCs not a popular gift item

Gartner said that PCs were not the top holiday gift item, and the impact of the holidays on PC sales was very limited in the U.S. market.

“Notebooks were off the top wish list of holiday gifts. Unlike 2014 holiday sales, there were not many holiday mega deals for laptops, especially in value segments,” Gartner said.

A shift was seen in consumers’ interest from PCs to other consumer electronics devices such as TVs and wearables, the research firm said. Gartner estimates that for the full year, Apple shipped 20.7 million PCs worldwide, helping it secure fifth place in the list of worldwide PC vendors. In 2014, the company shipped 19.6 million.

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