Global PC shipments declined 4.9 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter last year as Microsoft Corp’s new operating system failed to boost consumer purchases, while Hewlett Packard Co regained the world’s top PC brand status from Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), market researcher Gartner Inc said yesterday.
Worldwide, 90.37 million PC units were shipped in the October-to-December quarter last year, down from 95.02 million recorded a year earlier, according to preliminary results released by Gartner.
In a press release, the researcher said the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 did not have a significant impact on PC shipments in the fourth quarter.
“Some PC vendors offered lackluster form factors in their Windows 8 offerings and missed the excitement and potential of touch,” Gartner said.
This suggests that the PC industry’s problems are being caused by more than the weak economy, which had pushed down shipments at all top PC vendors in the quarter except China’s Lenovo and Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc (華碩).
“Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by ‘cannibalizing’ PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift their consumption to tablets instead of replacing old PCs,” Mikako Kitagwa, principal analyst at Gartner, said in the statement.
This was shown to be particularly true as consumers no longer viewed PCs as the No. 1 gift item during the holiday season, she said.
“This transformation was triggered by the availability of compelling low-cost tablets in 2012, and will continue until PC sales decline to accommodate tablets as the primary consumption device,” Kitagawa said.
Among the top five brands, HP shipped 14.65 million PCs in the fourth quarter, down 0.5 percent from a year earlier, with 16.2 percent market share. However, Gartner said the US company regained the top position by sacrificing a certain margin level.
Despite falling back to the No. 2 position, Lenovo reported the strongest growth of 8.2 percent in global shipments among the top five vendors to 13.98 million units, with a market share of 15.5 percent.
It was followed by Dell Inc, which saw shipments fall 20.9 percent to 9.21 million units and secured a 10.2 percent market share.
Acer Inc (宏碁) maintained its fourth-place ranking with a market share of 9.5 percent, but saw quarterly shipments plunge 11 percent year-on-year to 8.62 million units, Gartner said.
Meanwhile, Asustek’s shipments increased by 6.4 percent year-on-year to 6.53 million units last quarter, making it the world’s fifth-biggest PC vendor, with a 7.2 percent market share, Gartner said.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Standard Chartered Taiwan on March 26 announced that it has partnered with international fintech firm FinIQ to build an “Automated Structured Products Pricing Platform.” The bank is also introducing products from global issuers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays PLC and BNP Paribas SA. The new platform enables an end-to-end process whereby it finds the most competitive pricing across multiple issuers in a matter of minutes, followed by automated documentation and transaction execution, which significantly shortens time-to-market and delivers a superior wealth management experience. Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan CEO Anthony Yu (游天立) said: “Standard Chartered is increasingly leveraging its wealth management
RSS