PC sales slump, but not as bad as feared

~650,000 machines still ship every day, but that’s the lowest total since 2007

Source: PC sales still slumping, but more slowly than feared • The Register

Simon Sharwood writes:

Both analyst firms suggest that rising component prices have led to rising PC prices which has led to falling enthusiasm from buyers, especially consumers. DRAM, LCD panels and solid state disks prices all share some of the blame for the rise, as all are in short supply.

This is nonsense: not Sharwood’s reporting, what the analysts say.

The analysts are clutching at straws. Rising PC prices are not behind the PC sales slump, prices have only ticked up a smidgen. That is not enough to affect sales if there is an underlying demand.

PC sales slump shows lack of appetite

The demand is not there. Customers have little appetite or need to start buying PCs again in large numbers. Not today.

Two points stand out from the latest PC sales figures.

First, HP moved ahead of Lenovo. Sharwood quotes a Gartner analyst talking about Lenovo pulling back to focus on margins.

That’s a plausible explanation, but there’s more to it.

HP on a roll

HP has been on a roll since the business split from HP Enterprise. In general its hardware quality is better than in the past and the HP’s new designs are more interesting. While it would overdoing it to use a word like excitement, HP has momentum. Some good products too.

Second, Apple moved up to fourth place. Apple’s year-on-year Mac sales are flat, in a falling market that means the company’s market share has climbed. It’s not much of a climb, about 0.3 percent, but that’s enough to move Apple past slumping Asus. Apple may not dominate unit sales, but it does better in terms of its share of PC market revenue. And let’s face it, for a small market share, it has a lot of influence over the sector.