Worldwide PC shipments totalled 83.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014, a 1% increase from the fourth quarter of 2013, according to figures released by Gartner.
The company's research indicates a slow, but consistent improvement following more than two years of decline.
However, Gartner's figures differ somewhat from the numbers released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) a day earlier. The IDC says its Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker study found worldwide PC shipments totalled 80.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014, a year-on-year decline of 2.4%.
Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, says the PC market is quietly stabilising, after the installed base reduction driven by users diversifying their device portfolios. "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."
However, Kitagawa notes there are regional variations, with mature regions mostly showing an ongoing trend of positive growth, while emerging markets remain weak.
EMEA growth
Gartner reports that PC shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) totalled 26.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014, a 2.8% increase from the same period in 2013. This marked four quarters of consecutive growth in 2014, after declines throughout 2012 and 2013, Gartner says.
"The slight growth in EMEA was driven by Western Europe's strong consumer notebook shipments during the holiday season," says Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. He adds shipments were boosted by low-end notebooks with Windows 8.1 with Bing, which drove sales volumes during the holiday season.
"The low prices were enough to attract consumer attention away from Android devices, but had a negative impact on average selling prices and vendor margins," notes Atwal.
Users were increasingly attracted to notebook and two-in-one form factors instead of tablets, found Gartner. "Two-in-one hybrid devices performed particularly well, as users are replacing some older tablets and notebooks with these new devices that combine features from both," says Isabelle Durand, principal research analyst at Gartner. This category is predicted to show the biggest volume increase in 2015.
The Middle Eastern and African PC markets remained constrained as users continued to spend on smartphones and tablets rather than PCs, notes Gartner.
On the same page
For the EMEA region, the IDC's study concurred with data released by Gartner, with the former also reporting PC shipments in this region showed a slight increase in the fourth quarter, fuelled mainly by strong consumer demand during the holiday season. The IDC, however, did not give a specific figure for EMEA.
"Vendors continued to stock up ahead of Christmas and January promotional sales, and before the February change to Bing promotions, which will exclude 15-inch notebooks. This translated into stronger than expected shipments of portable PCs, while desktop PC sell-in remained softer, particularly in the commercial space.
"Political and economic factors, especially unfavourable exchange rates, also negatively impacted numerous countries across the region," says the IDC.
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