HP Edges Lenovo in Q4 PC Shipments, but Overall Shipments Fall 5%

The good news for HP is that they are back in the #1 spot for PC sales for both worldwide and in the U.S.  The bad news for HP, and everyone else involved in the PC industry, is that year over year unit sales of PCs for Q4 2011 to Q4 2012 fell 5%.  Gartner reports that in Q4 of 2012 90.3 million PC units were shipped, that’s less than the 95 million units that shipped during the same period in 2011.  Gartner defines a PC as being either a desktop or laptop (including Macs), tablets are not included, indeed it is tablets and smartphones that are eating into the PC sales volume as users shift their usage to these devices for reading and media consumption on the web.  Laptops and desktops are being replaced in longer cycles of 3 – 5 years instead of the faster 2-year turnover of tablets and phones.  It seems that older PCs have enough performance for the productivity and creative needs of many of todays users and often the latest and greatest technology is not needed, thus slowing the upgrade cycle.  Gartner also hypothesizes that family’s are sharing one PC in a household and then each member is purchasing a tablet for casual usage, again reducing the PC count in a household.

Whatever the reason, it seems that with the economy slowly improving in many countries the decline in PC shipments can’t just be blamed on poor economic headwinds, it is indeed a fundamental shift in buying habits of consumers.  Yet the death of the PC isn’t exactly here, 90-million units shipped around the world in Q4 is still an impressive number and we’re not talking extinction here.  Here are the tables for shipment numbers so you can see who was tops in worldwide and U.S. sales numbers:

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q12 (Units)

Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q12 (Units)