The EMEA traditional PC (desktop, notebook and workstation) market shows "stable growth" in Q1 2018, IDC reports-- the result of positive performance across both notebook and desktop categories.
According to the analyst, continued mobility adoption and increased customer awareness of the value proposition of premium devices helped maintain the growth trajectory of notebooks. Meanwhile the gaming market and commercial device refreshes in certain sub-regions drive "strong" desktop results.
On a global basis, PC shipments total 60.4 million units-- flat (0.0% Y-o-Y growth) results described as an improvement over a previous IDC forecast of -1.5% Y-o-Y decline. Q1 2018 is also the 3rd consecutive quarter of PC shipments hovering around flat Y-o-Y growth, even as commercial renewal activity helps stabilise the market.
Commercial Windows 10 uptake appears to be going steadily, to the benefit of enterprise-focused OEMs such as HP, Dell and Lenovo. Premium notebook demand also helps both consumer and commercial segments, while gaming systems bring "slight" improvement to the consumer segment. In addition, improvements in key notebook component supply helped both supply and prices, bringing some share recovery to smaller vendors.
"The component shortage that initially impacted portions of 2017 led some vendors to stock up inventory to avoid expected component price hikes, and that led to some concerns of excess stock that would be hard to digest in subsequent quarters," IDC says. "However, the market is continuing on a resilient path that should see modest commercial momentum through 2020."
HP leads the global market in terms of Q1 2018 market share, with an 8th consecutive quarter of growth (4.3% Y-o-Y). Lenovo follows with a flat quarter, while 3rd placing Dell posts the strongest growth (6.4% Y-o-Y) and positive performance in nearly every region. In 4th place is Acer, with sucess in the gaming and Chromebook niches, and Apple closes the top 5 with a Q1 2018 shipment decline of -4.8% Y-o-Y.