Lenovo Leads Worldwide PC Shipments In Q3, While HP Tops US Market: Gartner

Lenovo maintained its lead in worldwide shipments of personal computers in the third quarter of 2014 with an 11 percent annual growth, despite a slight decline in the overall PC market from same period last year, according to a new report by Gartner. HP led the rankings in the U.S. market.

Beijing-based Lenovo, which accounted for 19.8 percent share of the global PC market in the third quarter, performed well in the Europe, Middle East and Africa, or EMEA, regions, growing more than 40 percent over the same period in 2013. In the U.S., however, HP maintained the top spot in the third quarter, followed by Dell and Apple, the Gartner report said.

“Consumers’ attention is slowly going back to PC purchases as tablet adoption peaked with mainstream consumers. The transition from PCs to tablets has faded as tablet penetration has reached the 40-50 percent range,” Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst Gartner, said in a statement.

In the worldwide PC market, Lenovo was followed by HP, which was able to post single-digit growth in the three-month period ending in September. Although HP recently announced its intention to split the company into two entities, the move will not significantly hurt the company's PC business, according to Gartner.

Dell, Acer and Asus rounded up the top five PC vendors, with 12.8 percent, 8.6 percent and 7.3 percent share of the worldwide PC market, which reached a total shipment of 79.4 million units in the third quarter, a 0.5 percent decline from the same period last year. The top five, for the first time, accounted for two-thirds of PC shipments worldwide, according to Gartner.

In the U.S., HP continued to be the leading PC vendor, accounting for 27.8 percent of market share in the third quarter of 2014. Dell captured a 24.1 percent share, followed by Apple with a 14.3 percent share of PC shipments in the country.

Meanwhile, overall PC shipments in the U.S. totaled 16.6 million units during the period, a 4.2 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner.

“Consumers’ wallets were gradually coming back to PCs, although back to school sales season was not exceptional,” Kitagawa said in the statement. “More availability of affordable touch-based laptops, price drops of thin and light laptops, and 2 in 1 hybrid laptops will attract consumers this holiday season.”