Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Taiwan-based Asustek Computer Inc. and Acer Inc. ranked as the fifth and sixth largest PC suppliers in the world in the first quarter of this year, according to global market information advisory firm Gartner Inc.
Although the first quarter rankings of Asustek and Acer remained unchanged from the same quarter a year earlier, both brands saw their PC shipments fall year-on-year largely due to a shortage of CPUs.
Data compiled by Gartner showed Asustek ranked fifth with 3.60 million PCs shipped in the January-March period, down 7.3 percent from a year earlier, for a 6.2 percent global market share. It had a 6.3 percent market share during the first quarter of 2018.
Acer ranked sixth with 3.32 million PCs shipped in the first quarter, down 13.2 percent from a year earlier, pushing its market share down to 5.7 percent, from 6.2 percent a year earlier, Gartner said.
Worldwide, Gartner said, PC shipments fell 4.6 percent from a year earlier to 58.52 million units.
"We saw the start of a rebound in PC shipments in mid-2018, but anticipation of a disruption by CPU shortages impacted all PC markets as vendors allocated [CPUs] to the higher-margin business and Chromebook segment," Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner's senior principal analyst, said in a statement.
"While the consumer market remained weak, the mix of product availability may have also hindered demand," Kitagawa said.
The analyst said, however, that Chromebook shipments grew at a double digit pace in the first quarter, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs.
According to Gartner, the total worldwide PC market decline would have been just 3.5 percent during the January-March period had Chromebook shipments been included in total PC shipments.
Bucking the downturn in the global market, China's Lenovo Group Ltd. was ranked as the top global PC supplier in the first quarter, with shipments of 13.20 million units, a 6.9 percent increase from a year earlier.
Lenovo's global market share increased to 22.5 percent from 20.1 percent a year earlier.
U.S.-based HP Inc. came in second, with shipments of 12.83 million units in the first quarter, up 0.8 percent from a year earlier, outperforming the global market. HP commanded a market share of 21.9 percent, up from 20.7 percent, Gartner said.
Also outperforming the global market, American company Dell Inc. took the third spot, with shipments of 9.99 million units, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier. It had a market share of 17.6 percent, compared with 16.0 percent the same period of last year.
According to Gartner, the combined shipments of Lenovo, HP and Dell accounted for 61.5 percent of total shipments in the first quarter, up from 56.9 percent from the same period of last year.
Apple Inc. came in fourth after shipping 3.98 million PCs in the first quarter, down 2.5 percent from a year earlier. Apple's market share was 6.8 percent, up from 6.6 percent a year earlier.
(By Jeffrey Wu and Frances Huang)
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