The EMEA PC market returns to growth in Q2 2019, Gartner reports, as shipments are up by 1.7% Y-o-Y thanks to "strong" business demand brought about by Windows 10 deployments and PC refreshes from companies and government organisatsions.
The same cannot be said about consumer demand though, since it remains "very weak." According to the analyst mainstream users are not seeing enough innovation outside of gaming and high-end mobile PCs, leading to longer PC life cycles and a "very negative" impact on midtier PC vendors used to selling more to the consumer segment.
From a global perspective, Q2 2019 PC shipments total 63 million units, a 1.5% Y-o-Y increase from Q2 2018 shipments of 62m. Gartner points out demand from the Windows 10 refresh in the business market, as well as "strong" desktop PC growth offsetting a decline in mobile PC shipments. Furthermore, the Intel CPU shortage appears to be easing. The shortage mainly impacted small and midsize vendors, since large vendors took advantage and continued to growing, taking market share from smaller vendors struggling to acquire CPUs.
The top 3 vendors-- Lenovo, HP and Dell-- account for 64.1% of Q2 2019 global PC shipments, compared with the 60.7% of Q2 2018. The top 3 vendors continue to gain PC market share by taking advantage of economies of scale, and the aforementioned Intel CPU supply shortage of H1 2019 only accelerated the trend.
Lenovo remains the top PC vendor, with the fastest growth (15.9% Y-o-Y) and largest share gain (reaching 25% of the market) for the quarter among the top vendors. However such shipments might reflect some anticipation of potential tariffs, since the company sees double-digit shipment growth in all key regions except Latin America, where the overall PC market decline.
HP shipments are up by 2.6% Y-o-Y in Q2 2019 thanks to strong business PC demand across key regions. Chromebooks do not factor in the Gartner PC market analysis, but the analyst points out the company did see strong Chromebook shipment growth in Q2, and as such should remain the leader in the segment.
Third-placing Dell records a 6th consecutive quarter of PC shipment growth in Q2 2019, a trend driven by a clear focus as to where the company invests.
