Channel stocks up on PCs amid price rise fears - IDC

PC shipments increase 1.6 per cent in Q1 of this year, attributed by IDC to fears of price rises

PC shipments in EMEA were up 1.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 with the channel suspecting further price increases, according to IDC.

The year-on-year growth saw shipments climb to 17.4 million units, with notebooks seeing 8.9 per cent shipment growth.

According to IDC, components shortages at the end of 2016 have bolstered shipments at the start of this year, as channel firms anticipate further shortages driving up prices.

The market watcher claims these shortages, along with inventory build-up and favourable exchange rates, drove commercial notebook growth of 11.2 per cent in western Europe.

"The return to positive territory shows a clear stabilisation of the traditional PC market in EMEA," said IDC research analyst Andrea Minonne.

"Memory and SSD (solid-state drive) shortages caused backlogs last year and some shipments could not be fulfilled earlier than Q1.

"In addition, the channel anticipated demand and increased its stock intake ahead of further device price hikes."

The top five vendors in the PC market strengthened their position at the top, with HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, and Asus seeing their combined market share grow just over three percentage points to 77.4 per cent.

HP Inc maintained its position at the top, seeing 4.4 per cent shipment growth year on year to 4.3 million.

Lenovo and Dell remained in second and third place respectively, with forth-placed Acer seeing the largest shipment growth of the top five at 35.1 per cent.