Apple Posts Growth In A Declining PC Market

The PC market officially just had the worst year ever.

According to a new report from research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), global PC shipments experienced their largest annual drop ever in 2015 due to fierce market competition and the turmoil facing China’s stocks.

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, released Tuesday (Jan. 12), showed 2015 was the first year since 2008 the PC market fell below 300 million units, with the year-over-year decline in shipments falling by 10.6 percent.

While PCs were suffering, Apple defied the slowing computer manufacturing trend and flourished last year, The Telegraph reported yesterday (Jan. 13), noting that the company increased it market share by 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015. This was the largest growth for any computer manufacturer last year.

“Apple effectively tied ASUS for the number 4 position in the fourth quarter, but was clearly ahead on an annual basis. The company continued its strong run and outperformed the market, increasing its share globally to 7.9 percent for the quarter and 7.5 percent for the year,” an IDC press release stated.

Last year Apple revamped its MacBook offering and also updated its iMac desktops with retina displays.

“Consumer sentiment toward PCs remains a challenge, though clearly there are pockets of growth,” explained Jay Chou, Research Manager for IDC Worldwide PC Tracker. “Even as mainstream desktop and notebooks see their lifetimes stretched ever longer, Apple’s emergence as a top 5 global PC vendor in 2015 shows that there can be strong demand for innovative, even premium-priced systems that put user experience first.”

Despite the rough year the PC ecosystem just experienced, IDC’s Worldwide PC Tracker Vice President Loren Loverde predicts the year ahead may show some improvement.

“PC replacements should pick up again in 2016, particularly later in the year,” Loverde said. “Commercial adoption of Windows 10 is expected to accelerate, and consumer buying should also stabilize by the second half of the year. Most PC users have delayed an upgrade, but can only maintain this for so long before facing security and performance issues. We continue to believe that a majority of these users will purchase another PC, motivated by new products and attractive pricing.”