Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Apple Inc reported an annual increase in PC shipments in the first quarter of this year, despite global headwinds, while the shipments from Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Dell Inc and HP Inc dropped from a year ago, Gartner Inc said.
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 64.8 million units during the January-to-March quarter this year, shrinking 9.6 percent from the same period last year, Gartner said in a report.
Quarterly global figures represented the sixth consecutive quarter of declining PC shipments and the first time since 2007, when the shipment volume fell below 65 million units, Gartner said.
“The deterioration of local currencies against the US dollar continue to play a major role in the decline of global PC shipments,” Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement.
Gartner’s statement also showed that there was an inventory buildup from holiday sales in the fourth quarter of last year, which weighed on shipment momentum last quarter, the analyst said.
The world’s top-two PC vendors, Lenovo and HP, last quarter saw annual shipments fall 7.2 percent to 12.48 million units and 9 percent to 11.4 million units respectively.
Dell, which is the world’s third largest PC vendor by shipment volume, saw its sales fall 0.4 percent to 9.14 million units last quarter from a year earlier, the report said.
Gartner said Asustek was ranked fourth among global PC vendors, expanding its annual shipments by 1.5 percent to 5.36 million units last quarter.
This was the third consecutive quarter that Asustek’s shipment volume exceeded Apple’s shipments, data showed.
Asustek said last quarter’s result was better than the company’s estimates, thanks to its growing market share in the Chinese market and recovering demand in eastern Europe.
Apple, which has taken Acer Inc’s (宏碁) fifth spot in global PC shipments in the second quarter of last year, saw its quarterly shipments grow 1 percent from a year earlier to 4.61 million units.
Acer continued to see its PC shipment decline in the January-to-March period this year, according to the company.
The company declined to disclose its shipment volume, but said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its revenues plunged 17.3 percent annually to NT$56.31 billion (US$1.38 billion) last quarter.
Acer’s sales figures marked the lowest quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2006, according to the firm’s filings.
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