Global PC unit shipments 2006-2019
In 2019, approximately 261.24 million PCs were shipped around the world. This is a slight increase from 2018, reverting the decreasing trajectory since 2011. The market also has become more consolidated, with HP, Lenovo, Dell, Apple, Asus, and Acer taking a increasing market share compared to other vendors .
Why PC sales have declined
One reason for the downturn in unit shipments is the 2018 shortage in Intel central processing units, which caused difficulty for merchants’ supply chains; though the bigger companies could easier withstand the financial strain of offsetting the shortage. Recent significant shifts in the PC market, such as from on premise hardware to cloud solutions, have also contributed to declining PC sales. Additionally, the rise in usage of smartphones (and to a lesser extent, tablet computers) has cut into the size of the PC market.
Vendors reacting to market shift
Many vendors in the PC market have wisely begun to devote funds to higher margin business segments, resulting in a shift away from hardware production into software, services, and cloud services. For example, HP grew and spun off its enterprise solutions segment into a separate business, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). As the size of the IoT market worldwide has steadily increased since 2016, and is projected to reach over 457 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, other vendors are focusing on Internet of Things products and solutions. Lenovo for example is positioning itself as a strong player in IoT with a strategy termed Device + Cloud, which involves investing heavily in VR/AR, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). Similarly, Dell Technologies is developing a range of machine learning technologies that integrates with IoT infrastructure.
Why PC sales have declined
One reason for the downturn in unit shipments is the 2018 shortage in Intel central processing units, which caused difficulty for merchants’ supply chains; though the bigger companies could easier withstand the financial strain of offsetting the shortage. Recent significant shifts in the PC market, such as from on premise hardware to cloud solutions, have also contributed to declining PC sales. Additionally, the rise in usage of smartphones (and to a lesser extent, tablet computers) has cut into the size of the PC market.
Vendors reacting to market shift
Many vendors in the PC market have wisely begun to devote funds to higher margin business segments, resulting in a shift away from hardware production into software, services, and cloud services. For example, HP grew and spun off its enterprise solutions segment into a separate business, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). As the size of the IoT market worldwide has steadily increased since 2016, and is projected to reach over 457 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, other vendors are focusing on Internet of Things products and solutions. Lenovo for example is positioning itself as a strong player in IoT with a strategy termed Device + Cloud, which involves investing heavily in VR/AR, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). Similarly, Dell Technologies is developing a range of machine learning technologies that integrates with IoT infrastructure.
