Gartner: Q1 PC Shipments Fall 11.2%

Worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of 2013 fell 11.2% from a year earlier to 79.2 million units, the lowest levels since the second quarter of 2009, according to preliminary results released by market research firm Gartner, Inc.( IT ) Wednesday. All regions showed a decrease in shipments, with the EMEA region experiencing the steepest decline, Gartner said.

“In the first quarter of 2013, it was the fourth consecutive quarter that showed a drop in worldwide PC shipments,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Consumers are migrating content consumption from PCs to other connected devices, such as tablets and smartphones. Even emerging markets, where PC penetration is low, are not expected to be a strong growth area for PC vendors.

According to shipment figures released by Gartner, Hewlett-Packard Co. ( HPQ ) and China’sLenovo were in a virtual tie for the top position in the first quarter of 2013. HP’s worldwide PC shipments fell 23.6% to about 11.69 million units in the first quarter, its worst shipment decline since the acquisition of Compaq in 2003, Gartner said. HP’s market share fell to 14.8% in the first quarter from 17.2% in the first quarter of last year.

On the other hand, Lenovo’s shipments edged up 0.1% to about 11.67 million units in the first quarter, with market share growing to 14.7% from 13.1% a year earlier. It was Lenovo’s slowest growth since the first quarter of 2009. The slowdown was attributed to a shipment decline in Asia/Pacific, where more than 50% of Lenovo’s PCs were shipped.

In the first quarter, Dell, Inc.’s ( DELL ) shipments declined 11.2% to about 8.73 million units, while Taiwanese firm Acer’s shipments dropped 29.3% to about 6.84 million units.