European PC business boosted by Windows 10 refresh

Windows 10 replacements have driven strong demand for PCs in business, Gartner has reported. The analyst firm said 63 million PCs were shipped in the second quarter of 2019, up from 62 million in the second quarter of 2018.

“Worldwide PC shipments growth was driven by demand from the Windows 10 refresh in the business market in the second quarter of 2019,” said Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner. “Desktop PC growth was strong, which offset a decline in mobile PC shipments.”

Gartner reported that business demand remained strong as companies and government organisations continued with Windows 10 deployments and a refresh of their PC installed base.

Lenovo led the PC market, growing by 15.8% compared with Q2 2018, while HP Inc was the second-largest PC maker, growing its market share by 2.6%. Dell was third, with 2.1% growth compared with Q2 2018.

Commenting on the ongoing trade war between China and the US,  Kitagawa said: “While the US-China trade war did not impact the PC market in the second quarter of 2019, the next phase of tariffs could have a significant impact. Most laptops and tablets are currently manufactured in China and sales of these devices in the US could face significant price increases if the punitive tariffs are imposed and vendors do not take quick action to respond.”

According to Gartner, Lenovo, HP and Dell continued to gain share in the PC market, taking advantage of economies of scale. Intel’s CPU supply shortage in the first half of the year accelerated this trend.

Strong business PC demand boosted HP Inc’s growth across all key regions and offset weaker mobile PC shipments, said Gartner, adding that Dell’s growth trend has been the most consistent of the top vendors over the past three years, driven by its clear focus on where the company invests.