In Q2 2014, the worldwide PC market experienced 14 percent growth year-over-year to 123.9 million units, if you take into consideration desktops, laptops, and tablets. Laptops saw a slight resurgence in Q2 2014, with shipments all but flat on the same quarter a year ago. In fact, laptop shipments surpassed those of tablets once again (the last time this was the case was less than a year ago in Q3 2013).
The latest estimates come from Canalys, an independent analyst firm which noted the market saw “effectively no sequential growth.” As such, the company concluded that the positive effect tablets have had on overall PC shipments is beginning to wear off.
If laptop shipments were “all but flat” but surpassed tablets again, then there’s only one explanation: tablet shipments fell approximately 5 percent. This was largely due to both Apple and Samsung suffering shipment declines (Apple’s was steeper than Samsung’s), since the duo still accounts for 46 percent of global tablet shipments.
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Apple managed to maintain its lead at 14 percent market share, even though a 10 percent increase in Mac shipments could not make up for the decline in iPad sales (this was its weakest tablet quarter since Q1 2012). The American company’s overall shipments declined by 5 percent as a result, letting Lenovo close in and boost its share to just below 14 percent.
In fact, Canalys estimates Lenovo was “some 780,000 units behind Apple.” The Chinese company managed to pull off another impressive quarter, with shipments up almost 20 percent year-on-year.
The two were followed by HP and Dell, both of which posted year-on-year increases in shipments: 11 percent and 14 percent respectively. The two both saw sequential increases in market share, though they’re still a far cry from the top two.
As you can see in the chart above, the reason for that is simple: their position in tablets. Maybe they stand a chance if the tablet market is already slowing and notebooks are making a comeback?
“A slowdown in the pace of innovation is creating an issue for tablet vendors,” Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Coulling said in a statement. “The tablet market has quickly found itself in the same position the notebook market was in some years ago, with minimal increases in hardware performance forming the basis for an argument to upgrade.”
Top Image Credit: Thinkstock
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