The 2017 holiday quarter was a positive one for the PC market, according to the latest estimates from analysts at IDC. In total, IDC says that the PC market showed 0.7 percent year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter, shipping a total of 70.6 million traditional (desktop, notebook, and workstation) PCs worldwide. As the PC market has been on a decline in recent years, this marks the first growth for the holiday quarter in six years, IDC says.
Shipments for the full year still declined slightly, dropping by 0.2 percent. However, IDC analysts view this as a sign that the market is steadying out, pointing to 2017 as the most stable year for the market since 2011. From IDC:
The 4Q17 results further validate the view of a steadying, albeit still weak, traditional PC market, buoyed mainly by commercial upgrades and pockets of improving consumer PC demand. 2017 ended with an annual shipment volume of 259.5 million units, which represents a year-over-year decline of 0.2%. This makes 2017 the most stable year the market has seen since 2011.
In terms of manufacturers, HP represented the biggest share of the pie, taking a 23.5 percent share of the worldwide market in terms of shipments. Lenovo came in second with 22.2 percent, and Dell followed up in third with 15.7 percent. Apple took the fourth spot with an 8.2 percent share of the market, while ASUS and Acer followed up, each with a 6.4 percent share.
After a lengthy decline, this is certainly some positive news for the PC market, and it will be interesting to see if things continue to steady in the first quarter of 2018. For more, be sure to give IDC's full report a gander.
