Apple, HP Points To Strong Growth But Major Declines For Acer In The US, Says Gartner Q1 Report

Posted on Apr 12 2012 - 5:32am by Editorial Staff

Research firm Gartner has released its estimates of PC shipments in the US and worldwide for Q1 2012 — it points to strong growth for Apple and HP and major declines for Acer in the US. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 89 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 1.9 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011, when shipments reached 87.3 million units. These results exceed Gartner’s earlier projections of a 1.2 percent decline for the quarter.

HP and Apple was the number one and number three vendors in the US; HP shipped 4.5 million PCs, up 6.6 percent, while Apple shipped 1.6 million computers for a 3.8 percent growth rate. This far outstripped the overall US market, which actually declined 3.5 percent year-over-year to 15.5 million units. The big loser in the US was Acer, who saw shipments decline nearly 26 percent compared to Q1 2011; it didn’t do well in the worldwide market either, with a 9.2 percent decline year-over-year. Overall, the worldwide computer market grew 1.9 percent to 89 million units, compared to the decline seen in US shipments.

HP and Lenovo dominated the worldwide market in overall shipments, though HP only showed modest growth of 3.5 percent compared to Lenovo’s 28 percent growth. While the overall market only grew slightly, it still beat Gartner’s expectations of a 1.2 percent decline for the quarter. Gartner’s analysts noted that emerging markets like India and China didn’t perform as well as expected, so PC makers shouldn’t depend on them to grow rapidly despite low overall penetration.

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