China's Lenovo sees PC shipments slide in Q3 as global market remains depressed

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Lenovo is calculated to have seen about a 4 per cent drop in worldwide personal computer shipments last quarter. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 1:15pm, 9 Oct 2015Updated: 4:47pm, 9 Oct 2015

Chinese technology giant Lenovo Group saw its personal computer shipments decline in the third quarter as the global market remained gloomy amid volatile currencies, excess hardware inventory and the transition to Microsoft’s new Windows 10 operating system.

Separate preliminary estimates released on Friday by research firms IDC and Gartner showed about a 4 per cent drop in Lenovo’s worldwide personal computer shipments last quarter, pulled down by lacklustre sales in the Asia-Pacific and Europe-Middle East-Africa geographic markets.

That slump does not augur well for Lenovo’s performance in its second fiscal quarter ended September 30, after the company reported a 51 per cent net profit decrease in its previous fiscal quarter ended June 30.

Lenovo, which operates in more than 160 countries, initiated a sweeping restructing plan in August that included laying off 3,200 employees and writing off US$300 million of its smartphone inventory.

Jefferies equity analyst Ken Hui said in a report that Lenovo was earlier “expected to meet [market] consensus of 10 to 15 per cent quarter-on-quarter shipment growth in the third calendar quarter”.

IDC estimated that Lenovo’s shipments fell 4.9 per cent year-on-year to 14.937 million units in the third quarter, while Gartner calculated a 4 per cent decline on shipments of 14.995 million.

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