Worldwide PC sales keep sliding

Sales of personal computers drops for a fifth consecutive quarter as China’s Lenovo rises to top of PC maker rankings.

Lenovo ranked number one PC maker
Lenovo now commands 16.7 percent of the world's personal computer market [Reuters]

Worldwide sales of personal computers have dropped in the latest quarter of  April-June period, as Chinese Lenovo has become the world’s top PC maker.

PC shipments totaled 75.6 million units in the second quarter worldwide, down 11.4 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012 but slightly better than expected, according to International Data Corporation (IDC) .

It was the fifth straight quarter of decline and analysts expect PC shipments to continue to fall, albeit at a slower pace as companies upgrade to Windows 8 and buy laptops that can be separated from keyboards to become tablets.

Meanwhile China’s Lenovo Group Ltd unseated Hewlett-Packard as the world’s top PC maker in the latest quarter. 

Lenovo now commands 16.7 percent of the world’s personal computer market, up from 15.3 percent in the previous quarter according to research IDC.

It has spent heavily over the past few years to bolster its PC business with purchases such as Brazilian electronics maker CCE last year, Germany’s Medion in 2011 and IBM’s PC business in 2005.

As smaller vendors lost share, HP also rose, climbing to 16.4 percent from 15.7 percent. But the US firm has ceded ground to Lenovo as it grappled with numerous changes in executive leadership in recent years, leading to strategic mistakes, analysts said.

Source: News Agencies