‘Worldwide PC shipments declined in Q1’
LAUTECH to open software technology institute
Worldwide PC shipments hit 76.6 million units in the first quarter of 2014, a 1.7 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2013, according to a report by Gartner. The severity of the decline eased compared with the past seven quarters, it said.
A principal analyst at Gartner Mikako Kitagawa attributed decline to the stoppage of XP support by Microsoft.
“All regions indicated a positive effect since the end of XP support stimulated the PC refresh of XP systems. Professional desktops, in particular, showed strength in the quarter. Among key countries, Japan was greatly affected by the end of XP support, registering a 35 per cent year-overyear increase in PC shipments. The growth was also boosted by sales tax change. We expect the impact of XP migration worldwide to continue throughout 2014”, he said.
“While the PC market remains weak, it is showing signs of improvement compared to last year. The PC professional market generally improved in regions such as EMEA. The US saw the gradual recovery of PC spending as the impact of tablets faded,” Ms Kitagawa added.
The PC market continued to be tough for many vendors. Economies of scale matter tremendously in this high-volume, low-profit market, which is forcing some vendors, such as Sony, out of the market. In contrast, all of the top five vendors, except Acer, registered year-over-year shipment growth. The top thee vendors — Lenovo, HP and Dell — have all confirmed the importance of the PC business as part of their overall business strategies.
Lenovo experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors. Its shipments grew 10.9 per cent, and Lenovo extended its position as the worldwide leader. The company’s shipments grew in all regions except Asia/Pacific, where growth in China has been problematic. Overall, the China market slowed again, in part due to the long holiday in the middle of the quarter.
The share difference between Dell and HP once again narrowed compared to last quarter. In the first quarter of 2014, HP achieved its fastest shipment growth of the last two years. HP’s shipment growth in EMEA well exceeded the regional average, which improved HP’s overall growth. Dell maintained a strong position in the market. Since the completion of the leverage buyout last year, Dell has been aggressively expanding its PC business throughout the regions. The first quarter of 2014 was the third consecutive quarter of PC shipment growth for Dell, registering its highest growth since the fourth quarter of 2011. The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso has concluded arrangements to flag off its newly established Institute of Software Technology which aims to produce the needed software required in the country’s manufacturing industries, the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Adeniyi Gbadegesin has said.
Professor Gbadegesin while addressing a press conference to kickstart the 11th special Convocation ceremony of the university announced that the initiative was to complement the efforts at setting the pace for engineering breakthrough in the academic terrain in Nigeria and the industrial world, while the outputs outputs from the institute would also be sold to other sister institutions across the country.