The regional PC market’s American bias

In 2017 spending on PCs increased by 5% to $153 billion – the first annual growth since 2012. The same is not true of annual shipment growth, which has typically been stronger due increasing competition and declining average values. This trend was reversed in 2017 when the popularity of machines based on new processors by Intel and AMD led to an increase in average selling prices – the market grew by 3% to 230 million. Over the last few years the Americas – a region dominated by the US of course – has grown faster than either EMEA or Asia Pacific (see Figure).

Why is this happening? It is partially due to the predominance of American vendors who have been focusing more strongly on new sales strategies at home than internationally, despite the fact that Chinese supplier Lenovo was the overall leader (I’ve include shipment market shares for the world and 3 regions in the Figure). These new strategies have seen the introduction of new financing packages and a refocus on the enterprise and SMB markets by the leading players.

Is this regional disparity a permanent feature of the market? The disparity in sales in remarkable given the marge larger populations of EMEA and (especially) Asia Pacific; however the PC is by no means the only show in town any more. Smart phones and tablets may typically enhance rather than replace PCs among long-term PC users, but are being used as the only computers for those (typically younger people) who never had a PC… and there are proportionately more of those outside the US. I expect EMEA and Asia Pacific will have stronger growth/slow decline than America over the next few years, partially closing the growing regional divide. Worldwide spending on PCs will be level in 2018, followed by a 5-8% decline in 2019 and 2020; unit purchases will be stronger than spending each year, but still negative. These predictions are based on the assumption that there are no dramatic changes in the design or purpose of PCs in the near future.