After knowing the data for the fourth quarter of 2016 from the IDC consultancy for the computer market in Spain, there is already enough data to carry out full evaluations of the year , as well as comparisons with previous years. And the truth is that the results are not too flattering: a reduction in total sales by 11.8% , which means 3.2 million computers sold in the course of 2016 .
The decrease in sales has been noted in personal consumption computers , with a drop of 9.8% , but a little more in business computers , with a drop of 14% , the latter mainly due to a drop in the public sector demand .
Apart from global analysis, the computer market has a clear sales leader in 2016 , and that is HP , which with 30.5% of sales is far from its competitors, with Lenovo as the second brand in the market with 21.1% of the market share, and Asus completing the podium with 15.1% .
HP, clear winner
Losing only 2% of its share in the last two years, HP shows that it is the preferred brand among Spanish users, followed by Lenovo , which has irregularly managed to maintain its second position after a less graceful beginning of the year in sales. The surprise for third place is occupied by Asus , which during the last year has made a spectacular advance in units sold, with a growth of 27% . The opposite process has been Acer , reaching a reduction in sales of 40% this year.
The desktop computer, the most affected
Analyzing the IDC data by sector, we can see how the most affected has been desktop computers , closing the year with a 17% drop in sales . Data very similar to the 14% reduction in professional demand , this is due to the fact that in large part the computers acquired for companies or the public sector are usually desktop computers . Thus, as there is a reduction in public sector demand this year, this clearly affects both sectors .
The personal consumption market , for its part, is the one that has best withstood the onslaught , with a 7.6% drop in sales. Taking into account that the laptop sales numbers at the end of 2016 show a decrease of 7.1% , we can deduce that the majority of computers purchased by users in 2016 have been laptops .
It is thanks to this sector, that of households, that there has been this great rise in Asus , which closed the year practically tied in sales with Lenovo , since in the sector of sales to companies (and therefore, desktop) Asus it is almost gone, hovering around 5% of the market share.
Apple in the queue
The Cupertino company has posted a 7.9% loss in sales , rather poor numbers that leave them in fifth place in sales and 8.5% market share. With a virtually non-existent presence in business PCs, they rely heavily on home buying to sustain themselves, where they have managed to grab a 10% market share, a far cry from HP's 23.8% .
Generally speaking, a bad year for the computer market, although less bad for HP, Lenovo and finally Asus and their upward trend. We put our hopes of improvement in this 2017 that has just begun.