PC market saw first holiday quarter growth in six years, IDC says

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

The PC market saw its first holiday quarter growth in six years, showing signs that the market may be evening out after years of decline.

XPS 15
XPS 15

The 2017 holiday quarter was a positive one for the PC market, according to the latest estimates from analysts at IDC. In total, IDC says that the PC market showed 0.7 percent year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter, shipping a total of 70.6 million traditional (desktop, notebook, and workstation) PCs worldwide. As the PC market has been on a decline in recent years, this marks the first growth for the holiday quarter in six years, IDC says.

Shipments for the full year still declined slightly, dropping by 0.2 percent. However, IDC analysts view this as a sign that the market is steadying out, pointing to 2017 as the most stable year for the market since 2011. From IDC:

The 4Q17 results further validate the view of a steadying, albeit still weak, traditional PC market, buoyed mainly by commercial upgrades and pockets of improving consumer PC demand. 2017 ended with an annual shipment volume of 259.5 million units, which represents a year-over-year decline of 0.2%. This makes 2017 the most stable year the market has seen since 2011.

In terms of manufacturers, HP represented the biggest share of the pie, taking a 23.5 percent share of the worldwide market in terms of shipments. Lenovo came in second with 22.2 percent, and Dell followed up in third with 15.7 percent. Apple took the fourth spot with an 8.2 percent share of the market, while ASUS and Acer followed up, each with a 6.4 percent share.

PC Shipments - Q4 2017 / IDC

After a lengthy decline, this is certainly some positive news for the PC market, and it will be interesting to see if things continue to steady in the first quarter of 2018. For more, be sure to give IDC's full report a gander.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

6 Comments
  • “shipping a total of 70.6 traditional (desktop, notebook, and workstation) PCs worldwide.” So, almost 71 PCs were shipped in a quarter?   Does ANYONE  proofread anymore?
  • People are beigging to realize that Tablet based systems are consumption devices.  If you need to create, work, game,  etc.   A real pc based system is the only way to go.  Not only that,  More people are moving from MacOS to Windows than ever before.  They are seeing the benifits of windows 10 based systems.  Compared to the same OS since OSX was released.   Touchscreen, better hardware, lack of innovation on MacOS are all reasons people are leaving mac in droves.    On a few other websites that cater to ALL computing not just Microsoft, google or apple, There are so many people asking "i am moving away from apple,  what pc should I buy?" questions alot.   
  • Lack of innovation in iOS too, the new task manager in iPhoneX is a downgrade, less efficient than previous versions tbh.
  • Yep, PCs are here to stay. Just got my hands on a HP z6 g4... Now I'm playing with POW-WAH
    I've gotten annoyed at times looking at my S8 plus tiny screen when trying to look at charts and other in a pinch tasks. I've gotten annoyed with touch on my surface pro 2017 when trying to manipulate small elements on the screen when a mouse isn't nearby to use. PC with mouse and keyboard simply works.
  • Yeah, I guess there is a reason we are still using the same old inputs for the PC since the beginning and nearly the beginning, they work. I can see where pens would be better inputs in some cases, but I believe we are very far out from removing the mouse as an input device. Touch is nice, but without a pen you would never get the accuracy needed.
  • The mouse/touchpad is needed,  but add in pen/touch/etc...You have options.  With mac your stuck with arcahic OS,  and mouse / finger gymnastics Keyboard "shortcuts" ....just a terrible input/user interface.   Hence,  the people leaving apple for windows based computers.