HP reclaims the world-wide throne of personal computers. The US multinational has snatched China’s Lenovo market leadership in the second quarter of the year, according to Gartner data. HP is in first place with a 20.8% share, almost one point more than Lenovo, which has led the market for the past four years.
HP has already accumulated five consecutive quarters of growth. In the second quarter, the company’s sales increased 3.3% to 12.7 million units. By contrast, Lenovo’s fell 8.4%, after two quarters in positive. “The results reflect a strategic shift from Lenovo, which now seeks to protect its margin rather than gain market share,” said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner.
“Higher PC prices due to the impact of component shortages for DRAM, solid state drives (SSDs) and LCD panels had a pronounced negative impact on PC demand in the second quarter of 2017. The approach to higher component costs varied by vendor. Some decided to absorb the component price hike without raising the final price of their devices, while other vendors transferred the costs to the end-user price.”
In the first quarter, the consulting firm IDC already gave the top spot to HP. However, Gartner kept Lenovo at the top of the podium because it ranks other formats on the PC market, such as some types of convertibles.
Eleven Months of Sales Drop
The battle between HP and Lenovo takes place in a complex business that already suffers eleven quarters of falls. In the second quarter, worldwide PC shipments declined 4.3% year-on-year because the lack of certain components such as DRAMs or LCD panels has pushed up prices, affecting sales. “Some manufacturers have decided to absorb the rise, but others have transferred the costs to the final price of the product,” says Kitagawa.
In the region of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), 17 million units were sold, representing a year-on-year fall of 3.5 percent. The business continues to be led by HP with a 24.3% share, compared to 20.2% that Lenovo owns.
