Global PC shipments exceed forecast

The PC market in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) saw another positive quarter with preparations for holiday sales fuelling growth in shipments. Windows 8.1 with Bing notebooks contributed to higher sell-in numbers on portable PCs, particularly in the consumer space. Although demand related to the end of Windows XP support started to disappear, commercial shipments remained stable. Markets in Western Europe continued to drive the overall growth in EMEA, while shipments in the CEMA region remained constrained by economic and political instability.

Lenovo held a comfortable lead as the top PC supplier, hitting another record volume of 15.7m units. The vendor managed to regain growth in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) as well as maintain its strong pace of expansion and growth in EMEA.

HP shipped 14.7m units and remained in the number-two position with growth surpassing 5%. EMEA and mature markets continued to be the vendor's primary sources of growth, as were some last-minute public sector notebook shipments.

Dell shipped over 10m units, growing 9.7%, year on year, much of it based on a strong performance in notebooks in the US and Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan).

Acer grew over 11%, in part due to low volume a year ago, but also from the success of its Chromebooks and entry-level notebooks.

Apple moved into the number-five position on a worldwide basis, slightly overtaking ASUS. The company's steady growth, along with recent price cuts and improved demand in mature markets, has helped it to consistently outgrow the market.