PC shipments fall by 4.6%

Worldwide PC shipments totalled 58.5 million units in the first quarter of 2019, a 4.6 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2018, according to preliminary results by Gartner.

“We saw the start of a rebound in PC shipments in mid-2018, but anticipation of a disruption by CPU shortages impacted all PC markets as vendors allocated to the higher-margin business and Chromebook segment,” said Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner.

“While the consumer market remained weak, the mix of product availability may have also hindered demand. In contrast, Chromebook shipments increased by double digits compared with the first quarter of 2018, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs. Including Chromebook shipments, the total worldwide PC market decline would have been 3.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019,” she further added.