According to Gartner EMEA PC shipments total 17 million units in Q2 2017-- a -3.5% Y-o-Y decline, with mixed results across different countries, as some are confident while others are not.
For instance, uncertainty around the UK elections lead to some UK businesses delaying purchases, especially in the public sector. On the other hand, France sees a "more than expected" surge in consumer confidence after the electoral win of Emmanual Macron, even if spending on PCs remains "sluggish." German businesses are spending more on PCs as they invest in new Windows 10-based hardware, while the Russian market sees improvement thanks to economic stabilisation.
In global terms, Q2 2017 PC shipments are also down-- specifically by -4.3% Y-o-Y, reaching 61.1m units. Gartner says the industry is in the midst of a 5-year slump, making an 11th straight quarter of shipment declines and, when it comes to Q2 2017, the lowest quarter volume since 2007.
"Higher PC prices due to the impact of component shortages for DRAM, SSDs and LCD panels had a pronounced negative impact on PC demand in Q2 2017," the analyst remarks. "The approach to higher component costs varied by vendor. Some decided to absorb the component price hike without raising the final price of their devices, while other vendors transferred the costs to the end-user price."
The increase in prices impacted the consumer market more than enterprise, where prices are locked are typically locked in based on the contract. Consumers are more sensitive to price increases, and many are willing to postpone purchases in favour of waiting for a price drop.
HP beats Lenovo to the position of the top Q2 2017 global vendor. The company sees 5 consecutive quarters of Y-o-Y growth, as well as growth in most regions. Meanwhile Lenovo global shipments are down by -8.4% Y-o-Y, after 2 quarters of growth, with declines across all key regions. Gartner believes the Lenovo results are due to a shift from unit share gains to margin protection, a strategic balance all vendors find a challenge.
Dell also sees shipment growth of 1.4% in Q2 2017, and achieves 5 consecutive quarters of Y-o-Y global shipment growth as a result. Following are Apple with essentially flat (-0.4%) shipments and Asus, whose shipments total 3.8m with -10.3% decline.