HP threatening to retake PC crown from Lenovo

Gartner and IDC figures show HP closing in on market leader Lenovo in Q4

Despite squabbling over whether the market grew or shrank, IDC and Gartner agree that HP was close to retaking the global PC crown from Lenovo in Q4.

According to Gartner, global PC shipments for the three months to 31 December hit 83.7m, up one per cent on an annual comparison, as the market continued its "quiet stabilisation" following two years of declines.

Rival market watcher IDC, on the other hand, reckons PC shipments shrank 2.4 per cent to 80.7 million units.

However, both sets of data show HP threatening to retake the yellow jersey it ceded to Chinese rival Lenovo two years ago on the back of a barnstorming quarter.

Gartner says HP's shipments rose 16 per cent year on year during the quarter, propelling its market share to 18.8 per cent – within a point of Lenovo, which registered more modest growth of 7.5 per cent. Both vendors benefitted from the European market exits of Sony and Samsung.

IDC reckons just 0.2 points now separate the pair, with HP commandeering 19.7 per cent of the market following 15.1 per cent growth to Lenovo's 4.9 per cent growth.

Gartner said HP had "expressed its commitment to the device market" and had started to show strong growth in the US, as well as positive results in Asia-Pac and EMEA.

According to Gartner, Lenovo endured a mixed quarter, with strong growth in EMEA and the US, but shipments declining in Latin America and Japan.

"The PC market is quietly stabilising after the installed-base reduction driven by users diversifying their device portfolios," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

"Installed-base PC displacement by tablets peaked in 2013 and the first half of 2014. Now that tablets have mostly penetrated some key markets, consumer spending is slowly shifting back to PCs."

According to Gartner, EMEA shipments rose by 2.8 per cent year on year to 26.5 million units in Q4 as consumers were increasingly attracted to notebook and two-in-one form factors instead of tablets.

Outside the top two, Dell enjoyed a solid Q4 as shipment growth of 8.8 per cent pushed its market share up by nearly a point to 12.7 per cent. Acer's market share rose from 7.3 to 8.1 points on an annual comparison on the back of 11.6 per cent growth, while fifth-placed ASUS's shipments were flat.

The "others" category took the biggest knock, with shipments falling 12.8 per cent year on year to 28 million.