New Delhi: Worldwide PC shipments declined 8.3 percent to 75.7 million units in October-December 2015 over the year-ago period, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of fall, research firm Gartner said.


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About 82.59 million PCs were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2014.


For the year, PC shipments totalled 288.7 million units in 2015, an 8 percent decline from 2014, Gartner said in a statement. "The fourth quarter of 2015 marked the fifth consecutive quarter of worldwide PC shipment decline. Holiday sales did not boost the overall PC shipments, hinting at changes to consumers' PC purchase behaviour," Gartner Principal Analyst Mikako Kitagawa said.


On the business side, Windows 10 generally received positive reviews, but as expected, Windows 10 migration was minor in the fourth quarter as many organisations were just starting their testing period, she added.


"All regions registered a decrease in shipments. Currency devaluation issues continued to impact EMEA, Latin America and Japan," Kitagawa said. Collectively EMEA, Japan and Latin America saw their markets reduced by nearly 10 percent in 2015, she added. The PC market is still in the middle of structural change which will reduce the PC installed base in the next few years, Gartner said.


In the fourth quarter, Lenovo led the tally with 20.3 percent share but shipment declicing 4.2 percent year-on-year. HP, which had a 18.8 percent share, saw shipment falling 8.1 percent, while that of Dell declined 5.1 percent y-o-y (13.5 percent market share). Asus, Apple and Acer had 7.9 percent, 7.5 percent and 7 percent market share, respectively. In the US, PC shipments totalled 16.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, posting a 3.1 percent decline y-o-y.


In Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), PC shipments fell 16 percent to 22.5 million units in the said quarter, while that in the Asia Pacific market dipped 1.5 percent to 26 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, Gartner said.