Analysts: Tablet Displacement Of PCs Slowing

The U.S. market for personal computers in 2015 will be flat to slightly positive, according to a couple of recent market research reports.

The worldwide displacement of PCs by tablets peaked in 2013 and the first half of 2014, according to Gartner.

Now that tablets have mostly penetrated key markets, consumer spending is "slowly shifting back to PCs," according to Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa, who said worldwide PC shipments grew 1 percent in the fourth quarter.

Separately, the privately held International Data Corp. said worldwide PC shipments fell 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter.

Gartner includes tablets while IDC excludes them from its measures. IDC includes Chromebook laptops that run on Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) operating system and Gartner doesn't.

The U.S. showed the highest growth in the fourth quarter compared with other parts of the world, while emerging markets showed relatively weaker PC growth.

Kitagawa said emerging-market consumers show a strong affinity for smartphones and tablets, while PCs are a low priority.

For all of 2014, IDC said worldwide PC shipments fell 2.1 percent to 308.6 million units - the third consecutive year of declines.

Lenovo Group Ltd. (OTC: LNVGY) shipped 16 million units worldwide in the fourth quarter, for a market share of 19.9 percent, up from an 18.5 percent share in the year-earlier period, according to IDC.

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) shipped 15.9 million personal computers in the recent quarter, and garnered a market share of 19.7 percent, up from 16.7 percent last year.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Acer Inc. followed, with slightly improved fourth-quarter market shares of 13.5 percent and 7.7 percent respectively.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) personal computer market share rose in the fourth quarter to 7.1 percent from 5.8 percent a year earlier.

Gartner's rankings for the companies were roughly in line with IDC's although it didn't count Apple's share.