Is the PC market on the road to recovery?

In the fourth quarter of 2016, worldwide shipments of traditional PCs totaled 70.2 million units, posting a trend of growth stabilization too.

That's according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, with a year-on-year decline of 1.5%.

Annually, shipments of traditional PCs slipped to 260 million units, down 5.7% from 2015.

IDC analysts have unveiled that the first quarter of 2016 was still constrained by high inventory, free Windows 10 upgrades, and difficult comparisons to commercial replacements in 2014 that were fueled by the end of support for Windows XP.

For the Asia/Pacific market (excluding Japan)(APeJ) there was a continuous improvement, with only a minor decline in shipments

With the demonetization crisis in India, there was a significant impact on the market, curbing demand and hindering shipments in the consumer and SMB segments.

For China, there was a strong demand for consumer notebooks supported by a shift to thin and light devices continued.

The commercial market in most APeJ countries remained soft. Projects in India have been delayed, while China saw weaker than expected commercial demand.

Loren Loverde, vice president of Personal Computing Trackers - Forecasting, says the fourth quarter results reinforce their expectations for market stabilization, and even some recover.

"The contraction in traditional PC shipments experienced over the past five years finally appears to be giving way as users move to update systems," she explains.

"We have a good opportunity for traditional PC growth in commercial markets, while the consumer segment should also improve as it feels less pressure from slowing phone and tablet markets."

As far as vendors go,  Lenovo is still at the top of the PC game, although there is still strong competition from HP.