Third Quarter Global PC Market Statistics

The well-known analyst firm Gartner announced today the preliminary statistics report for the global PC market in the third quarter of 2010. According to its data, from July to September this year, 88.3 million PCs were shipped globally, an increase of 7.6% year-on-year, but the increase was significantly lower than the previous 12.7%.

According to Gartner analysts, the main characteristic of the PC market in the third quarter was the weak demand for consumer PCs in the United States and Western Europe. Traditionally, the third quarter of the back-to-school shopping season should be the PC market peak season, but after the strong growth momentum of the past two years, the growth of mobile PCs, especially low-cost notebooks and netbooks, has slowed down.

The iPad-led multimedia tablet device also affected the PC market consumption, especially in the US market. Although tablets cannot completely replace PCs, they can still affect PC sales in many different ways. Due to the upsurge of media attention caused by tablet computers, many consumers and channels are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward buying new machines.

On the vendor side, Hewlett-Packard is still ranked in the top position in the global market, but shipments fell slightly year-on-year. Especially in the Asia-Pacific market, sales volume has dropped by 20% due to HP's strategy of giving priority to profit. The second Acer also had a 1.7% d decline in sales.

Third Quarter Global PC Market Statistics (Units)
Business 3Q10 Shipments 3Q10 Share (%) 3Q09 Shipments 3Q09 Share (%) Year-on-Year Increase (%)
HP 15,431,749 17.5 15,513,420 18.9 -0.5
Acer 11,527,716 13.1 11,726,586 14.3 -1.7
Dell 10,816,474 12.2 9,908,099 12.1 9.2
Lenovo 9,140,778 10.4 6,871,379 8.4 33
ASUS 4,793,186 5.4 3,911,263 4.8 22.5
Toshiba 4,695,600 5.3 4,014,945 4.9 17
Others 31,896,091 36.7 30,106,333 37.1 5.9
Total 88,301,595 100 82,052,026 100 7.6

The third Dell has a significant increase in most regional markets, especially in the professional PC field, but its performance in the North American market is not satisfactory. Lenovo was one of the top five vendors with the most positive growth. Shipments increased by 33% year-on-year, and the professional PC market in the United States and Europe made significant contributions.

In the U.S. market statistics, total shipments of 17.6 million units increased by 2.2% year-on-year, and the rankings of the top five companies did not change significantly. Although the iPad was not seen as a PC by Gartner, Apple’s share in the US market also exceeded 10%, showing the iPad's leading role in the sales of Macs.

Looking back at the Asia-Pacific market, PC shipments totaled 29.7 million units, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%. Demand for notebooks and demand for first-time PC purchases in emerging markets are still growing rapidly. Among them, the sales volume in the Chinese market accounted for 62% of the total volume in the Asia-Pacific region, and the growth rate of 11.3% was the same as last year.

Third Quarter US PC Market Statistics (Units)
Business 3Q10 Shipments 3Q10 Share (%) 3Q09 Shipments 3Q09 Share (%) Year-on-Year Increase (%)
HP 4,459,473 25.3 4,372,231 25.4 2
Dell 4,188,688 23.8 4,447,478 25.8 -5.8
Acer 1,848,511 10.5 2,338,816 13.6 -21
Apple 1,831,664 10.4 1,611,000 9.3 13.7
Toshiba 1,629,100 9.3 1,427,000 8.3 14.2
Others 3,650,807 20.7 3,036,573 17.6 20.2
Total 17,608,242 100 17,233,099 100 2.2