PC sales increased in 2019 compared to the previous year, IDC and Gartner announced on Monday. This increase is largely due to the fact that Microsoft will soon permanently stop supporting Windows 10, so many users rushed to buy machines that will support it.
According to Gartner, 70.6 million PCs, showing an increase of 2.3% compared to the 4th quarter of 2018. As for total sales for the year, they amounted to 261.2 million units, showing an increase of 0.6% from 2018.
IDC, on the other hand, reported that fourth-quarter shipments totaled 71.8 million units, up 4.8 percent. For the full year, shipments totaled 266.69 million units, up 2.7 percent from 2018.
The difference in the results found by Gartner and IDC has to do with the fact that they look at different aspects of the PC market. Gartner's data includes desktops, laptops, and ultra-premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. IDC includes desktops, laptops (including Chromebooks), and workstations, but not tablets or x86 servers.
“The PC market saw growth for the first time since 2011, driven by strong business demand for upgrades to Windows 10, particularly in the U.S., Europe, Africa and Japan,” Mikako Kitagawa, senior analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. “We expect this growth to continue this year even after Windows 7 support ends, as many businesses in growing regions such as China, Eurasia and the Asia/Pacific region have yet to upgrade.”.
As ZDNet 's Ed Bott noted , there are about 1.2 billion Windows computers in use worldwide, with about a billion of those running Windows 10. Most of the rest – nearly 200 million – run Windows 7.
Lenovo , HP, and Dell remained the top three vendors, according to both IDC and Gartner. The three companies accounted for about 65% of the market in 2019, slightly up from the previous year.
Lenovo saw year-over-year sales growth in most regions. In the U.S., growth reached 30% compared to a year ago, according to Gartner.
HP, the world's second-largest vendor, maintains its top position in the US, Europe, Africa and Latin America, Gartner also said.
Dell also reported record sales for the fourth quarter of 2019.
However, Apple 's Mac sales in the fourth quarter fell 5.3% year-over-year, according to IDC.
