PC Shipments Stagnating according to Gartner and IDC

In an industry that is going through troubled times, only Apple, Asus and Lenovo are keeping their heads above the water, according to research firms Gartner and IDC. Preliminary results show a stagnating PC market with worldwide shipments stalling in the second-quarter.

Gartner's figures show worldwide PC shipments totalled 87.5 million units, while IDC reveals a similar figure of 86.3 million units --- a decline by 0.1 percent on the year before. Despite high expectations in the Ultrabook space, shipment figures show a poor rollout across the board and had "little impact on overall shipment growth," said Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa.

Credit: Gartner

The exception to the above are Lenovo and ASUS. While ASUS took the lead in growth, Lenovo grew by around 12 percent in the second-quarter putting it a hair's breadth away from the top-spot currently occupied by market leader, HP.  The company suffered a massive 12 percent drop in growth, with Dell falling by more than 11 percent.

HP sold 13 million PCs down by 1.8 million a year ago, while Lenovo sold 12.8 million up from 11.2 million on the same quarter last year --- showing extremely healthy growth compared to Dell's 9.3 million shipments which fell from 10.6 million a year ago. ASUS saw massive growth of 38.6 percent, but still stands behind in fifth place.

Credit: IDC

According to IDC, the figures are similar, despite the two research firms measuring the market differently. IDC said the figures fall in line with "projections of a slow second and third quarter before faster growth by year end."

Windows 8 will be coming to the market soon though, and will probably boost overall PC shipments in the fourth-quarter in the run up to the Christmas holiday.