Ladies and gentlemen, we have the first PC sales growth in six years. And we can thank Windows 10 for that, as the operating system is said to have generated an upgrade cycle that helped lift the numbers.
Data shows Windows 10, which gets refreshed twice a year, has helped PC sales reach the 62.1 million units mark during the quarter — a 1.4% increase from the same quarter last year.
Gartner provided these statistics, revealing that this is the first growth of the industry in the last six years, with PC shipments dropping substantially during this time span mostly as a result of buyers transitioning to smartphones and mobile devices.
All across the world, at that.
Talking about the major players, Lenovo continues to be the leading PC maker with a solid enough market share of 21.9% due to 13.6 million units sold. HP comes second, with almost the same share, while Dell is third, and has 16.8% and 10.4 million units to its name.
Apple is listed far behind with 7.1% and 4.3 million devices.
The market research firm does caution against the notion that the PC market is back to recovery and says that we need to wait for more signs of stability. Then there is also the chance of sales declining within the next two years when the Windows 10 upgrade cycle slows down.
Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner:
“In the business segment, PC momentum will weaken in two years when the replacement peak for Windows 10 passes. PC vendors should look for ways to maintain growth in the business market as the Windows 10 upgrade cycle Tails off.”
Oh dear!
Gartner explains that this strong performance in the second quarter of the year 2018 is mostly driven by the demand in the business market, which covered the losses experienced in the consumer segment.
If consumer sales hold up, the PC market could experience a boom. But that is something that is unlikely to happen in the short term, as smartphone sales are still going strong.
We’ll take it as it comes, though.
Right?
