Lenovo, HP and Dell tighten grip as PC market shrinks

Big three now own 55 per cent of market, compared with 51 per cent a year ago, according to IDC

Michael Dell's prophecy that Dell, HP and Lenovo will snaffle 80 per cent of the PC market within five years has been supported by the latest quarterly data from IDC and Gartner showing the top three pulling away from smaller rivals.

The global desktop and notebook PC market suffered another tough quarter, according to the two market watchers, with Gartner and IDC recording a 7.7 and 10.8 per cent year-on-year drop in Q3 shipments, respectively.

While Gartner said sales have slowed on the back of price increases caused by the sharp appreciation of the dollar this year, IDC said Q3 was a "transition period" for the market that saw the channel embroiled in clearing old Windows 8 inventory.

Both analysts noted that the launch of Windows 10 had caused users to upgrade existing PCs rather than buy new hardware.

It was the market's big three - Lenovo, HP and Dell - and fourth-placed Apple, who emerged from the three-month period ending 30 September in the most credit.

Collectively, the top four vendors saw shipments decline by 4.5 per cent, compared with a 20 per cent drop for the rest of the market, IDC said.

According to IDC, Lenovo, HP and Dell now own 54.9 per cent of the market, shipping a collective 39 million units in Q3, compared with a 51.3 per cent share in Q3 2014.

Add in Apple and that percentage rise to 62.4 per cent, compared with 58.2 per cent a year ago.

This revelation is at least consistent with Michael Dell's bold claim last month that his firm - along with his two big competitors - will boss a collective four-fifths of the market by 2020 as the market continues to consolidate.

Gartner is of a similar mind, with its data suggesting the big three now have a 52.6 per cent share of the spoils collectively, compared with 50.1 per cent a year earlier.

EMEA had a particularly tough time of it in Q3, Gartner said, as unit shipments in the region slumped 15.7 per cent to 20 million units as prices remained high on the back of the devaluation of local currencies. Back-to-school sales were weak in western Europe, Gartner added, as vendors delayed new products until the end of September as they worked on clearing high inventory.

IDC said that Windows 10 had received favourable reviews and "raised consumer interest in PCs" but added that its launch had prompted many users to upgrade rather than buy new machines. The market watcher also said the "unusually short time" between Windows RTM [release to manufacturing] and the official retail release had limited the choice of Windows 10 PCs on offer for most of the quarter.

"The PC market continues to contract as expected, but we remain optimistic about future shipments," said Jay Chou, research manager, IDC Worldwide PC Tracker. "While PC shipments will be hampered in the short run by the availability of a free upgrade to Windows 10, the improved PC experience across user segments should drive longer-term demand for new PC hardware that is expected help stabilise the market in 2016 and beyond."