Here's How The Top PC Vendors Fared In Q1 2018

PC Sales Decline While A Few Vendors Grow

The PC market is continuing to shrink, with a new Gartner report pointing to a 14th consecutive quarter in dwindling PC shipments. But while PC sales decreased internationally 1.4 percent year over year and domestically 2.9 percent in 2018's first quarter, two of the top PC vendors saw growth in the U.S. worldwide and four of the top vendors bucked the sales decline trend.

While the U.S. contributed to the overall decline, the largest driver for shrinking PC sales was China due to some state-owned and large enterprises postponing new purchases or upgrades, while they await new policies and officials' reassignments after the National Peoples' Congress in early March, Gartner said.

"In the first quarter of 2018, there was some inventory carryover from the fourth quarter of 2017," Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. "At the same time, vendors were cautious in overstocking due to the upcoming release of new models in the second quarter of 2018 with Intel's new eighth-generation core processors." While the overall PC market is shrinking, it's not all doom and gloom. Systems builders in the U.S. told CRN that high-end PC sales have been growing because of an increase in popularity in esports and live-streaming.

In the following slides, we look at how Dell, HP, Lenovo and other top PC vendors performed in first-quarter 2018, according to preliminary shipment numbers gathered by Gartner (the report only accounts for desktop, laptop and premium mobile computers, such as Microsoft Surface, but not Chromebooks or iPads).

Asus

While Asus didn't sell enough units in the U.S. to make the top vendor chart, the Taipei, Taiwan-based company made it into the top worldwide vendors list. Asus saw international sales decrease 12.5 percent year over year to 3.9 million units shipped in the first quarter. Worldwide, the company's market share was 6.3 percent.

Acer Group

Acer Group saw the largest plummet in U.S. PC sales out of the top vendors, with shipments decreasing 25.1 percent year over year in first quarter to 321,000 units. Internationally, the New Taipei, Taiwan-based company didn't fare much better, with sales shrinking 12.5 percent to 3.9 million units shipped in the first quarter. The company's market share was 6.2 percent internationally and 2.7 percent in the U.S.

Apple

Ranking in at No. 4 in U.S. sales, Apple was one of only two companies that grew domestically, but only by a hair. Apple's PC shipments grew 0.5 percent to 1.4 million units in the U.S. Worldwide, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's PC sales grew faster at 1.5 percent to 4.2 million units shipped.

Lenovo

Lenovo was No. 3 for PC sales in the U.S. with 1.6 million units shipped. On an international level, the company ranked No. 2 with 12.3 million units shipped, less than 1 million behind worldwide PC leader HP. The Beijing, China-based company's international sales were nearly flat, only growing 0.3 percent in the first quarter, while U.S. sales shrunk 4.8 percent.

HP

While HP ranked second in U.S. PC sales with 3.3 million units shipped, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company led internationally with 12.8 million units shipped in the first quarter. However, while international sales grew 2.8 percent year over year, shipments in the U.S. shrunk 4.8 percent. The company's market share was 28.4 percent in the U.S. and 20.8 percent internationally.

Dell

Dell led the way in U.S. PC sales with 3.4 million units shipped, giving the company a 29.1 percent market share in the first quarter. Internationally, however, the company ranked in third place with 9.8 million units shipped, putting it behind Lenovo and HP. Another area where the Round Rock, Texas-based shined was first-quarter year-over-year sales growth: 6.5 percent internationally and 7.6 percent in the U.S., making it the fastest-growing PC business worldwide and domestically.