PC Sales Rising After 7 Years of Decline

2019 was the first year in seven years in which PC sales increased. The market leaders are Lenovo, HP and Dell. One of the reasons for the increased demand is the end of support for Windows 7, which is forcing many companies to switch to newer hardware.

2019 was a good year for computer manufacturers.

Gartner analysts' data indicates that sales of computers increased by 2.3% in the fourth quarter of 2019 (compared to the same period a year earlier). Over the last 12 months, shipments of PCs reached 261 million units, an increase of 0.6% compared to 2018. It is worth noting that this is the first year of growth in 7 years.

Unfortunately, some of the factors that drive the market are quite short-lived. The increase in interest is related to the end of support for Windows 7, scheduled for today. For this reason, some companies have decided to purchase new hardware. Although such a scenario may be repeated this year (as similar steps will be taken by operators in other regions of the world), in the long term the market will need a different stimulus.

“The PC market experienced growth for the first time since 2011, driven by vibrant business demand for Windows 10 upgrades, particularly in the U.S., EMEA and Japan. We expect this growth to continue through this year even after Windows 7 support comes to an end this month, as many businesses in emerging regions such as China, Eurasia and the emerging Asia/Pacific have not yet upgraded," said Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner.

The three most popular PC manufacturers are Lenovo (24.8% market share in Q4 2019), HP (22.8%) and Dell (17.2%). Data includes desktop PCs, notebooks and ultrabooks, but excludes Chromebooks and iPads. It is also worth noting that all the above information is preliminary predictions and may change.

PC market share. Source: Gartner.

Gartner's ratings are roughly in line with those of its competitors at IDC (via MarketWatch), the company's analysts point to an increase of 2.7% in the fourth quarter of last year and a total of 266.7 million PCs delivered (annually). Also according to this entity, Lenovo (24.3%) was the market leader in the period in question, ahead of HP (23.6%) and Dell (17.5%).

"This past year was a wild one in the PC world, which resulted in impressive market growth that ultimately ended seven consecutive years of market contraction," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.