The traditional PC market (desktop, notebooks and workstations) comes in negative in Q4 2018, IDC reports-- shipments are down by -5.8% Y-o-Y to reach 19.6 million units, with declines in both commercial and consumer segments.
The decline in commercial space is arguably slight, being at -1.1% Y-o-Y, thanks to ongoing device renewals and increasing Windows 10 adoption. On the other hand consumer decline reaches -10.6%, and affects both desktops and notebooks. The analyst points out a number of reasons behind such results, including CPU shortages leading to vendors unable to meet seasonal demand, as well as disruptive macroeconomic and political scenarios taking place in multiple larger economies, including Brexit and the Yellow Vest movement.
W. European Q4 2018 shipments are down by -4.7% Y-o-Y, with slight commercial growth (1.3% Y-o-Y) insufficient to offset heavy consumer decline (-11.5% Y-o-Y). Enterprise are continuing to buy notebooks, particularly ultrabooks, bringing about some measure of stable performance. On the other hand, the consumer segment shows weak performance in both categories, with the DACH region, France and UKI posting double-digit declines.
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