Lenovo, HP, Dell dominated 2019 PC industry with record 65% share

In 2019, the global PC market grew for the first time in eight years, shipping a total of 268.1 million units including desktops, notebooks and workstations. The global PC market also recorded 2.7 per cent growth in 2019 as compared to 2018. The global PC market was largely dominated by the three largest vendors in 2019 -- Lenovo, HP and Dell.

In 2019, Lenovo led the market with 64.8 million shipments with 8.6 per cent growth whereas HP sold 63 million units at 4.7 per cent growth. Dell witnessed 5.3 per cent growth and shipped 46.5 million PCs. Apple and Acer rounded out the list of top five most-selling PC vendors of 2019. However, Acer was the only brand from 2018 to have noticed a decline in shipments in 2019.

“PCs had a decent holiday quarter,” said Ishan Dutt, Canalys Analyst. “This is impressive given the market registered record growth in Q3. Despite supply chain issues, vendors remain bullish, especially in commercial. Intel’s continued efforts to improve supply will help maintain volume in 2020, but constraints are unlikely to ease quickly. The upshot, however, is the upgrade opportunities OEMs have with SMBs who have delayed refreshes in anticipation of new chipsets.”

The economic slowdown in the United States did not affect PC shipments, which grew 7 per cent year-on-year at 17.9 million units in Q4.

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Analysts believe that the decision to delay proposed tariffs by the Trump administration led to stronger than expected spending in the crucial consumer holiday, which allowed retailers to absorb additional inventory.

In the middle of the Brexit issue in Q4, shipments grew about 2 per cent in EMEA. However, the UK is set to leave the EU on 31 January 2020, resulting in short-term certainty. According to analysts, PC shipments will likely accelerate as channels build inventory ahead of the UK departure date, as distributors are nervous about subsequent product delays between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

“2020 is unlikely to repeat the success of 2019. Macroeconomic factors continue to influence the PC industry heavily, as key markets like the US, Japan and India are expected to under-perform, for the major part of the year. Adding uncertainty to the market is a possible disruption to HP, which continues to be the target of a hostile takeover by Xerox,” said Rushabh Doshi, Canalys’ Research Director.