Lenovo Asia Pacific sees PC market recovery continuing well into 2020

BEIJING, China —Computer maker Lenovo Group is expecting personal computer (PC) shipments to continue growing in 2020 after recovering in the second and third quarters of 2019.

“This year is a very strong year ...” Lenovo Asia Pacific president Ken Wong told reporters during a briefing on the sidelines of the Lenovo Tech World and Innovation summit.

After six years of declines since, the global PC market saw a continuous cycle of quarterly sales recovery in April to June and July to September, data from research and market analysis firms Gartner and International Data Corp. (IDC) showed.

PC sales worldwide grew by 4.7% totaling 64.9 million units in the second quarter, according to IDC. In the same period, Gartner tallied around 63 million units—up 1.5%.

For the third quarter, Gartner recorded 67 million units sold, up 1.1%, while IDC estimated 70.4 million units, up 3.0%.

IDC and Gartner attributed the growth in PC shipments worldwide to the Windows 10 refresh cycle.

“When we talk to our customers, they are expecting that the upgrade cycle will continue next year because there are still a lot of PCs that is not upgraded to the latest version,” Wong noted.

The Windows 10 migration of PC users will fuel demand as the end of service date of Windows 7 in January 2020 is drawing near.

“That demand will continue next year,” Wong said.

“The latest [Windows] version will offer a lot better functions and features, and what is more important to me is security,” he said.

In the third quarter, Lenovo held strong its No. 1 spot with 16.8 million PC shipments while HP Inc. and Dell came in at second and third, according to Gartner’s estimates. IDC also estimated Lenovo as the top PC brand in terms of shipments with 17.3 million units shipped, followed by HP and Dell.

Strong PC sales also reflected in Lenovo’s financials as the Chinese computer maker saw a 20% growth in net income to $202 million in the second quarter from $168 million a year earlier.

Revenue stood at $13.5 billion, up 1.1% from $13.4 billion year-on-year.  —VDS, GMA News