Global PC shipments dropped 7.7 percent annually to 73.3 million units last quarter, with those from Taiwanese manufacturers Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) plunging deeper than their peers by double-digit percentages, Gartner Inc said on Thursday.
Due to sharp appreciation of the US dollar against local currencies, the global PC market has experienced price hikes of about 10 percent this year, which has weakened PC demand, Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement.
Gartner’s PC tallies include desktop and notebook computers, but exclude mobile devices.
“The currency issue impacted the region, including the emerging markets, Japan and Latin America, which all posted double-digit percentage declines in shipments last quarter,” Kitagawa said, adding that the demand in the Asia-Pacific region and the US were more stable.
According to Gartner’s statistics, Acer’s shipments plummeted 19.9 percent to 5.44 million units last quarter from a year earlier, while Asustek’s dropped 10.1 percent to 5.23 million units over the same period.
In a bid to reduce foreign exchange risks and brace for industry headwinds, Acer has cut its global shipments target this year, chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told reporters in August.
Given the volatile currency fluctuations in emerging markets, Asustek is expected to book exchange losses for last quarter, chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told the Taipei Times on Thursday.
In the July-to-September quarter, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and Hewlett-Packard Co remained the first and second-largest PC brands, with shipments of 14.99 million units and 13.65 million units respectively, Gartner said.
However, shipments from the two vendors fell by 4 percent each from the same period last year, Gartner said.
Apple Inc and Dell Inc were the only two among leading PC brands with annual increases in shipments last quarter, Gartner data showed.
Third-placed Dell saw shipments increase slightly by 0.5 percent annually to 10.16 million units last quarter, and Apple Mac shipments rose 1.5 percent year-on-year to 5.6 million units, replacing Asustek at fourth place in the rankings, data showed.
Acer secured fifth spot in global market, while Asustek was pushed to sixth place, Gartner said.
Kitagawa said Microsoft Corp’s Windows 10 operation system, launched in the end of July, had a limited impact on shipments in the last quarter, because the focus of the launch was to upgrade software on existing PCs.
Windows 10 is more likely to spur demand this quarter due to the holiday season, Kitagawa said, adding that “soft recovery is expected to begin this quarter.”
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