The past holiday season wasn’t enough to lift the ever-declining sales of personal computers.
Worldwide shipments of PCs declined in the fourth quarter, according to two industry reports released on Tuesday.
International Data Corporation (IDC) said that computer makers shipped 71.9 million devices in the fourth quarter, a 10.6% decrease from the previous year during the same period. Gartner, on the other hand, said that manufacturers shipped 75.7 million PCs globally in the fourth quarter, or an 8% year-over-year decline.
The fact that the holidays didn’t lift sales shows how consumer PC purchasing habits have changed, according to Gartner. And while Microsoft’s (MSFT) new Windows 10 operating system received good reviews, it wasn’t enough to spur many businesses to upgrade to new computers during the holidays.
SIGN UP: Get Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s daily newsletter about the business of technology.
IDC attributed some of the weak sales to China’s turbulent economy.
But IDC analysts remained optimistic that the PC market could eventually rebound in the later half of 2016. The report’s authors remained confident that Windows 10, and its sales pitch of improved design and better security, will eventually prompt more people to buy computers.
“Most PC users have delayed an upgrade, but can only maintain this for so long before facing security and performance issues,” Loren Loverde, vice president of IDC’s PC sales tracking program, said in a statement. “We continue to believe that a majority of these users will purchase another PC, motivated by new products and attractive pricing.”
As for individual vendors, both reports cited Lenovo as leading the fourth quarter PC market, followed by HP, Inc. And Dell. However, all three of those companies saw their worldwide shipments decrease from the previous year, with HP, Inc. Taking the biggest hit. IDC said that HP, Inc.’s PC shipments shrank 10.1% whereas Gartner said the company’s shipments declined 8.1%.
WATCH: For more on computers see our Coins2Day video:
Apple (AAPL) was the only PC maker whose worldwide shipments increased in both reports, which said that the company’s fourth quarter shipments jumped 2.8% year over year.
