"With Windows 7 end of support looming, many businesses migrated to Windows 10 and refreshed their old devices at the same time last year. While this was primarily in Japan, refreshes were driving demand in other Asia/Pacific countries too, bringing growth to the overall commercial PC segment in the region," says Jennifer Kwan, Market Analyst for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific.

Several large deployments to education supported the public sector (e.g. 1.6 million units for the ELCOT tender in India, and education projects in Indonesia). On the other hand, the commercial market in China remained soft, tarnished by ongoing US-China trade tensions and a drop in projects in the public sector.

In the consumer market, shipments declined by 0.6% in 2019, bringing total volumes to 45.3M units. Desktop shipments contracted by 11.3% amid an ongoing drop in demand, as many consumers continued to switch to portable devices. Notebook PCs posted growth of 3.6% thanks to ultraslim notebooks with chassis thinner than 21mm. The consumer market also continued to grow in the gaming space, fueled by strong demand from users, more offerings at lower price points, and more appealing designs. These factors made gaming notebooks one of the best performing segments in the PC market in 2019, with consumer gaming notebook shipments increasing by 11.9%.

One of the big winners in the consumer PC market in 2019 was AMD. Thanks to an increase in the number of offerings with Ryzen processors, as well as Intel's ongoing supply shortages, AMD managed to increase its share in the consumer market from 11.4% in 2018 to 17.4% in 2019, with AMD-based PC shipments growing by 52.4%.

"It was a big year for AMD in the PC space. Not only have they managed to significantly increase the number of wins with multiple vendors thanks to their extremely successful Ryzen product portfolio, but they also gained ground in countries like Korea and Vietnam, where they had almost no presence at all in the past. AMD is also winning new designs with vendors that did not carry their processors previously, such as Microsoft, Xiaomi, and LG Electronics. Although Intel supply constraints might have made things easier for AMD, they are also winning thanks to an impressive product offering, and they will not sit back – I would expect them to continue this good performance in the coming year," says Maciek Gornicki, Senior Research Manager for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific.

2019 Top 5 Traditional PC Company Highlights:

• Lenovo topped the PC market ranking with 30.2% share in the market and shipment growth of 6.1%. The vendor benefited from large deployments to education segment – driven by the ELCOT tender in India – and strong demand in the private sector due to Windows 10 migration across the region.

• HP Inc. placed second, with market share of 14.9% and a growth in shipments of 10.1%. The vendor performed well in the private sector, with growth driven by Windows renewal projects, primarily in Japan, and Korea. HP Inc's education shipments were boosted by projects in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

• Dell Technologies ranked third, finishing the year with a market share of 14.1% and shipment growth of 7.8%. The vendor posted an increase across all commercial segments in 2019 and in all countries except PRC, Philippines, and Thailand. However, it witnessed a decline in the consumer segment, particularly in India.

• Asus recorded a mild decline of -1.4%, due to weaker performance in the consumer segment in PRC, Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

• Acer Group remained in the Top 5 companies in 2019, but its shipments declined by -2.9%. The vendor recorded a slight growth in the consumer market, supported by increases in ultraslim and gaming notebooks, and good results in ASEAN.

Challenging times ahead in 2020 with Windows renewals winding down, COVID-19 impacting the market

Despite the positive results of 2019, IDC forecasts the traditional PC market in APJ to decline by -14.0% in 2020. PC shipments are expected to see softer demand, delays, and supply constraints due to the COVID-19 outbreak in China. With many factories closed throughout February, and manufacturers not being able to ship their products out of China due to logistics issues, an impact on supply is inevitable.

“Many countries directly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, such as China, Korea and Singapore, are expected to see a dip in consumer demand given the limited retail traffic. Consumer shipments are forecasted to decline by -6.7% across APJ* in 2020. Commercial renewals related to Windows 10 migration are also expected to wind down, particularly in Japan, bringing the commercial APJ* PC market to a -19.7% decline in 2020,” ends Kwan.