Global shipments of personal computers slumped 10.9 percent in the second quarter, the fifth straight quarterly decline in a market that has been devastated by the popularity of tablets, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Marking the longest decline in the PC industry’s history, Hewlett-Packard in the June quarter lost ground to Lenovo, now the world’s leading personal computer maker with a market share of 16.7 percent.<\/p>\n
“We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets,” Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a news release.<\/p>\n
Also on Wednesday, research firm IDC said PC shipments dropped 11.4 percent in the second quarter, a bit better than expected.<\/p>\n
“With second-quarter growth so close to forecast, we are still looking for some improvement in growth during the second half of the year,” analyst Jay Chou said in IDC’s report.<\/p>\n
PC makers shipped 76 million computers in the June quarter, compared with 85.3 million in the same quarter last year, Gartner said.<\/p>\n
Steepest PC market decline yet for MEA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n PC sales in sharp decline<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n