FRAMINGHAM, MA – Worldwide PC shipments totaled 68.5 million units in the first quarter, a year-over-year decline of 6.7%, according to IDC. 

Shipments were slightly ahead of previous projections, the research firm added.

Following a strong second half of 2014, which benefited from the tailwind of the Windows XP refresh and pockets of price-driven consumer activity, the market faced multiple headwinds – including inventory buildup of Windows Bing-based notebooks, commercial slow down following the XP refresh and constrained demand in many regions due to currency fluctuations and unfavorable economic indicators. As a result, growth and volume declined with first-quarter shipments below 69 million units, the lowest recorded volume since the same period in 2009.

"Despite the decline, PC shipment in the US declined at a slower rate than all other regions in first quarter, outperforming worldwide trends for the eleventh consecutive quarter. The strength from key vendors, adoption of emerging products, improvements in the consumer market and in the broader economy are all positive signals," said Rajani Singh, senior research analyst, Personal Computing. “The upcoming launch of Windows 10 will consolidate the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. In addition to the free upgrade for consumers for a year after the release, Windows 10 should be a net positive as there is pent-up demand for replacements of older PCs. Only part of the installed base needs to replace systems to keep the overall growth rate above zero for rest of the year.”

"Although shipments did exceed an already cautious forecast, the market unfortunately remains heavily dependent on pricing being a major driver, with entry SKU volume masking a still tenuous demand for higher priced systems that is needed to sustain a more diverse PC ecosystem. Pricing pressure is bringing many premium SKUs into formerly mid-level pricing tiers," said Jay Chou, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide PC Trackers. "As more vendors find it increasingly difficult to compete, we can expect additional consolidation in the PC market."

The US market fell 1% to 14.2 million units, with strength in portables offset by sluggish desktop sales. EMEA and Asia also fell, but Japan was hit worst, with volumes declining 44% from a year ago. 

 Among top vendors, Lenovo remained No. 1, with 13.4 million units, up 3.4% overall, and besting Apple for third place in the US.

HP remained No. 2, shipping nearly 13 million PCs with growth surpassing 3%, driven primarily by resilient growth in US and EMEA. Although growth slowed from earlier in the year, HP & Lenovo continued to outpace the market and their nearest competitors.

Acer continued to see good acceptance of its Chrome offerings, but shipments slowed in the first quarter – particularly in EMEA where it had seen a strong rebound in mid-2014 but faced pressure from other market leaders in the fourth quarter.

Asus had a solid quarter with worldwide volume of 4.8 million units and growth of 4.4%, supported by growth in Asia. This brought the company just behind Acer – effectively a tie for fourth place.

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide PC Shipments, Q1 2015 (Preliminary) 

Shipments in thousands of units

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