ASIA Pacific PC shipments dropped 1.7 percent in the third quarter of 2015, showing the market for both desktops and notebooks continue to be weak, despite new manufacture releases.
According to Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totalled 73.7 million units in the third quarter of 2015, a 7.7 percent decline from the third quarter of 2014.
Desktop PCs experienced a greater percentage decline compared to notebook PCs and premium ultramobiles. The latter category, which includes the Apple MacBook Air and Microsoft Surface Pro lines of devices, may be picking up, as manufacturers continue to introduce innovations.
However, the overall global PC market has not been helped by the sharp appreciation of the US dollar in 2015, resulting in price increases of around 10 percent throughout the year, and weakening demand in the EMA, Japan, Latin America and Asia Pacific markets.
According to Gartner, the launch of Windows 10 in the third quarter of 2015 had a minimal impact on shipments in the quarter. Much of the focus of the launch was to upgrade to Windows 10 on existing PCs, rather than ship on new PCs.
However, the situation may be looking up: according to Gartner's 2015 personal technology survey, 50 percent of consumers expressed intention to purchase a PC in the next 12 months, compared with 21 percent for tablet purchase intention. This represents a swing in consumer preferences back towards the PC.
Gartner expects soft recovery for the PC market to begin in 4Q15, as Windows 10 product refreshes start to appear, and more stable market conditions in 2016.
In terms of brand, the top position in worldwide PC shipments was taken by Lenovo, which saw its market share increased to 20.3 percent, despite a 4 percent decline in shipments in the third quarter of 2015. Its strategy of hybrid laptops with a wide range of price points and detachable screens helped it to grow 22 percent in the US.
In the second and third places are HP and Dell.
Gartner noted that the statistics are preliminary: final statistics will be available to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program.