Gartner: Global PC Shipments Fall 1.7% In Q1

(RTTNews) - Worldwide PC shipments fell 1.7% year-over-year to 76.6 million units in the first quarter of 2014, according to preliminary results by market research firm Gartner, Inc. (IT).

This marks the eighth consecutive quarter of shipment decline, but less severe than the past seven quarters.

"The end of XP support by Microsoft on April 8 has played a role in the easing decline of PC shipments," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

"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 U.S. saw the gradual recovery of PC spending as the impact of tablets faded." Ms. Kitagawa said.

China's Lenovo continued to be the world's largest PC vendor in the first quarter with a 16.9% market share, followed by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) with 16.0% and Dell with 12.5%. Taiwan's Acer Group took the fourth position with 7.3% market share.

HP and Lenovo had been virtually neck and neck for the top global position in the PC market throughout 2013.

In the U.S., PC shipments rose 2.1% to 14.1 million units in the first quarter. HP continued to be the No. 1 vendor in the U.S., as it accounted for 25% of shipments, followed by Dell with 23.8% and Apple, Inc. (AAPL) with 10.8%. Lenovo accounted for 10.4% of U.S. PC shipments and took the fourth position.