Ryan Reith, program vice president of IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said it was a “wild” year, when “impressive market growth” ultimately put a stop to years of stagnation in the field. He added that the numbers made it clear that there is still a place for PCs on the market, despite the recent trends leaning more toward mobile computing.
Gartner data found that PC sales hit 261.2 million units, a growth of 0.6 percent for the year, though the numbers don’t include Chromebooks or iPads. Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner, said the growth came from an increase in demand for Windows 10 upgrades, which is particularly strong in the U.S., EMEA and Japan.
Kitagawa added that the growth is expected to stay strong into 2020, even as support for Windows 7 ends, and as many businesses in China, Eurasia and the emerging Asia-Pacific have not yet upgraded to Windows 10.
IDC’s numbers had Lenovo leading the pack in sales, with 24.3 percent market share and 64.8 million PCs. HP had 23.6 percent market share with 62.9 million units, and Dell had 17.5 percent market share at 46.5 million units.
Gartner’s figures were different, showing Lenovo with 24.1 percent market share, HP with 22.2 percent and Dell with 16.8 percent.
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In Q4, IDC found that “global PC sales rose 4.8 percent to 71.8 million units, and Gartner said sales grew 2.3 percent to 70.6 million units.” So, PCs are still viable, even as the world forays into 5G technology and new gadgets like dual-screen phones.
