'PCs are still very important to our customers and to us’
Las Vegas, May 8, 2017: The debate whether the PC is dead in the age of smartphones and tablets is long over as we continue to see the modern workforce use notebooks and desktops, along with other devices. Although Gartner says global PC shipments declined in Q1 2017, revenues continue to be strong for companies such as Dell, Lenovo and HP especially in the enterprise segment. Dell for instance, claims to be gaining market share for 17 straight quarters. The global PC market is worth roughly $170 billion.
According to Gartner, Worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.2 million units in the first quarter of 2017, a 2.4 percent decline from the first quarter of 2016. The first quarter of 2017 was the first time since 2007 that the PC market experienced shipments below 63 million units in a quarter.
Nevertheless, Dell remained optimistic about the growth of its PC/client business.
Addressing the media and analyst here at Dell EMC World 2017, Michael Dell, Chairman & CEO, Dell Technologies said the PC/clients business is still core to the company.
“PCs are still very important to our customers and to us. For us, the revenues and the average selling price for the PC have been going up. Our share in the PC business has been going up as well; we’ve gained share for 17 quarters in a row. This gain will continue in the 18th quarter. We’ve invested in innovation and R&D,” said Dell.
He attributed the growth of PCs to the emergence of distributed computing, IoT, 5G cellular networks, workplace transformation and market consolidation.
“The parents of IoT are PCs. We are learning a lot about distributed computing from all the work we have done in the client business. The new 5G networks will connect hundreds of billions of devices and create a new network or a distributed cloud. It will create enormous amount of data and it will be distributed,” said Dell.
Workplace transformation is also driving up the average selling price of the PC. Companies want to give their workforce access to the latest technology to enhance productivity and creativity, said Dell.
Gartner says Dell achieved four consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth. It had PC shipment increases in all regions except the U.S. Dell enhanced its channel program and expanded its share in the large-enterprise market.
The PC industry is also experiencing a price increase. Over two years ago, the price hike was attributed to the local currency deterioration against the US dollar. This time, the price hike is due to a component shortage, especially for DRAM (memory chips) and SSD storage.
According to Gartner Q1 2017 results, Dell is No. 2 (behind HP) in terms of PC shipments with 3.2 million units sold in that quarter – HP sold 3.5 million units.
Dell claims to be No. 1 in PC profits and No. 1 in revenue.
The Gartner report is available here: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3676117
UPDATE 9 May/Las Vegas
PC AS A SERVICE
Addressing demand for new consumption models, Dell is also
launching its PC as a Service (PCaaS). The Dell Technologies PC as a
Service solution combines the latest Dell Technologies PC
hardware, software and end-to-end services including deployment, management,
security and support, for a single, predictable price per seat per month. The
solution helps reduce the burden and cost of IT management over the complete
lifecycle of the PC, allowing IT to focus on more strategic priorities and gets
end-users into new technology faster.
