Global notebook shipments for the first quarter of 2016 totalled 35.62 million units, falling 19% from the last quarter and also declining 7.3% year-on-year.
This is according to the latest report by global market research firm TrendForce, which shows the first quarter was the traditional off season for the notebook market, and retailers still needed time to clear out their existing stock.
Based on TrendForce's analysis, this year's notebook shipments will register an annual decline of up to 5%, as notebook brands have become more conservative in their demand forecasts for the year.
The report further revealed Lenovo replaced HP as the leading notebook brand by shipments in the first quarter.
TrendForce says HP dropped to second place in the worldwide ranking, with shipments declining 21.2% quarterly, due to the inventory depletion efforts in the channels and seasonality.
Dell, which remained at third place in the ranking, has benefitted from having a stable base of enterprise clients. The brand therefore only suffered a quarterly shipment decline of 15%, according to the report.
Preliminary research from Gartner showed worldwide PC shipments totalled 64.8 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a 9.6% decline from the first quarter of 2015.
This was the sixth consecutive quarter of PC shipment decline, and the first time since 2007 that shipment volume fell below 65 million units.
Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, says PCs are not being adopted in new households as they were in the past, especially in emerging markets. In these markets, smartphones are the priority.
Gartner says Lenovo maintained the top position in worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of 2016 with a growth of 7.2%. HP ranks in second position, with a 9% growth rate. Dell, in third position, saw worldwide PC shipments decline to 0.4% growth in the same period.
Meanwhile, an IDC report revealed worldwide PC shipments totalled 71.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, indicating a year-on-year decline of -10.6%.
The report revealed the PC market continued to face persistent challenges from longer PC lifecycles and competition from mobile phones and tablets, despite the slowing growth in those markets.
However, economic issues like falling commodity prices and weak international currencies, as well as social disruptions in EMEA and Asia/Pacific that unsettled foreign markets were a larger factor for 2015, says IDC.
Anita Wang, TrendForce notebook analyst, says the first-quarter notebook market was hurt by other factors.
"For instance, the report of Microsoft planning to raise the operating system licence fees had a serious impact on the outlooks of branded Wintel notebook vendors. Additionally, prices of components such as HDDs have been rising, causing the cost of the entire notebook system to go up as well," she explains.
TrendForce says in the first quarter of 2016, Apple did not have any new MacBook products ready for the market, nor did it lower MacBook prices to generate sales. As a result, MacBook shipments suffered a massive quarterly decline of 40.4% in the first quarter and Apple retreated to sixth place in the ranking.
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