PC sales have fallen again across the world as users look to more mobile devices, new analyst reports have claimed.
The latest quarterly PC global shipment figures from Gartner claim that worldwide PC shipments totaled 58.5 million units in the first quarter of 2019 - a 4.6 percent decline from the same period last year.
However the demand for PCs remains strong, Gartner says, with the need for Windows 10-ready devices driving sales to businesses looking to refresh their hardware.
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Decline
Despite the overall slowdown, the top three PC vendors actually managed to grow their market shares, which Gartner says is due to scale becoming a bigger factor in industry dynamics.
Once again, Lenovo led the way as the world's top PC vendor with 22.5 percent of the total market share, recording a 6.9 percent growth in sales from the same point last year.
It was followed by HP at 21.9 percent of the market, recording a 0.8 percent growth from 2018, with Dell rounding out the top three on 17.6 percent and a 1.5 percent market share growth.
Apple saw a 2.5 percent decline in shipments year-on-year, but still maintained fourth place overall with 6.8 percent of the market, ahead of Asus and Acer.
In contrast, Gartner found that shipments of Google's Chromebook devices (not included in the report) increased by double digits compared with the first quarter of 2018, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs.
In fact, had Gartner's figures included Chromebook shipments, the total worldwide PC market decline would have been only 3.5 percent for the quarter, as schools and universities drive sales for the devices.
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