ROUND ROCK (dpa-AFX) - Technology research firm Gartner Inc. (IT) Wednesday said Worldwide PC shipments totaled 87.5 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a decline of 8.3 percent compared with the third quarter of 2011.
'A continuing slowdown in consumer PC shipments played a big part in the overall PC market decline. The third quarter was also a transitional quarter before Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system release, so shipments were less vigorous as vendors and their channel partners liquidated inventory,' said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
Lenovo took the No. 1 position in worldwide PC shipments for the first time in the company's history, as its share increased to 15.7 percent, while Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (HPQ) global PC share was at 15.5 percent.
Lenovo were followed by HP, Dell Inc. (DELL), Acer Group and ASUS.
Gartner said that Lenovo has also taken an aggressive position on pricing, especially in the professional market. As a result, Lenovo has achieved significant market share gains over the last two years, exceeding regional average growth rates across all regions.
Although it finished the quarter very close to Lenovo, HP has given up the top PC vendor position for the first time since the third quarter of 2006.
In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 15.3 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a 13.8 percent decline compared with the same period last year.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX