PC sales have risen again in the latest surprising report concerning the once-struggling market.
According to the latest figures from Gartner, sales saw a 1.1 percent growth during the third quarter of 2019 as the demand for newer devices running the latest version of Windows 10 helped drive sales across the world.
Overall, Gartner saw global shipments total 68.1 million units in Q3 2019, up from 67.3 million in the previous period, despite worries that the market was set to slip into decline following a number of high-profile incidents.
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Windows 10 push
Lenovo maintained its place as the world's top PC manufacturer, shipping 16.8 million units during the quarter, a 5.8 percent growth based on the same period in 2018.
HP remained in second place, shipping 15.2 million units (a 4.6 percent increase), with Dell in third (11.3 million units), and Apple and Acer rounding out the top five.
Apple's market share was the only one in the top five to decline over the time period, falling 3.7 percent to leave the company with 7.5 percent of global share.
Microsoft was ranked seventh in the worldwide market, with Chromebooks not included in Gartner's figures.
“The Windows 10 refresh cycle continued to be the primary driver for growth across all regions, although the magnitude of the impact varied according to local market conditions and the stage of the refresh cycle,” said Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal research analyst at Gartner.
“Neither the Intel CPU shortage nor the U.S.-China trade war had a significant impact on PC shipments in the third quarter of 2019. The Intel CPU shortage has continued to ease, and U.S. tariffs on China-built mobile PCs had a minimal impact on PC shipments as the date for the potential increase in tariffs was pushed out to December 2019,” said Ms. Kitagawa.
