PC shipments worldwide grew 15 percent to 80.6 million units in the July-September period from a year earlier, the research firm Gartner Inc said on Tuesday.
But an economic slowdown in the US hit shipments of computers in the third quarter, with the professional market being affected the most.
PC shipments in the US grew 4.6 percent to 17.4 million units last quarter.
“The US professional market experienced the biggest hit from the economic crunch,” Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa said. “The US home market saw definite softness in PC sales after a few quarters of strong growth.”
Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) kept its position as the world’s biggest PC maker with 18.4 percent of the market. Dell Inc was second with 13.6 percent. Acer Inc (宏碁) of Taiwan remained in third place at 12.5 percent.
The hottest product category was “mini-notebooks,” or “netbooks,” Gartner said. These are cheap laptops, generally with screens smaller than 10 inches (25.4cm) diagonally, that started appearing last year. One of 20 laptops sold in the US in the quarter was a mini-notebook, according to Gartner.
Though it now has a mini-notebook, HP’s slow entry into the category cost it its position at the top of the market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Kitagawa wrote.
In those areas, Acer was the largest seller.
Apple Inc, the only major manufacturer that doesn’t base its computers on Microsoft Corp’s Windows software, kept gaining share in the US market, going from 7.7 percent a year ago to 9.5 percent in the latest period.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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