Worldwide personal computer shipments fell by 12.3 percent to 51.6 million units in the first quarter, the sharpest decline since 2013, according to preliminary results by Gartner.
Although Lenovo (0992) maintained its top position, shipments fell by 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020 and 22.6 percent on-year in Asia Pacific.
Yang Yuanqing, chairman and chief executive of Lenovo, said all of its mainland factories have resumed operations.
Gartner said that because coronavirus impacts were most apparent in the U.S. later on in the first quarter of 2020, the US PC market actually grew by 0.8 percent.
However, PC shipments showed a steep sequential decline of 30.2 percent compared with the last quarter.
Asia Pacific showed the worst year over year decline of 27.1 percent since Gartner started tracking the PC market.
Overall PC shipments in China, the largest contributor to this decline, dropped by over 30 percent compared to a year ago.
Desktops, the main commercial PC type for the government and education organizations, experienced the biggest drop of nearly 40 percent. Mobile PCs declined less – 20 percent – as notebook demands were driven by remote employees and e-learning students.
