Holiday PC sales grew for the first time since 2011

The market for PCs grew during the holiday season last year, which is a first in six years of declining demand for computers, according to a report by IDC. The market, which includes desktops, notebooks, and workstations, grew by 0.7 percent over the holiday season last year. IDC had initially predicted demand would decline by 1.7 percent.

The overall year’s shipments were down by 0.2 percent, which was still better than 2016’s decline of 1.5 percent. The Asia-Pacific region and Latin America saw positive growth, while the US remained a challenging market.

HP saw the highest demand among the increased shipments, pulling in a market share of 22.7 percent and maintaining its lead from 2016. In order of highest demand, here are the top six of 2017:

1. HP
2. Lenovo
3. Dell
4. Apple
5. Acer
6. Asus

Lenovo came in second place, overtaken by HP for the first time in four years. The company underwent a restructuring last year as an attempt to reclaim domestic markets. It still performed well, especially outside the US with its notebooks. Dell struggled to do well in the US, coming in third place, while Apple came in fourth for another year, pulling only 7.6 percent of the market share, trailing behind Dell by 8.5 percentage points. Acer and Asus nearly tied, with Acer grabbing 6.8 percent of market share compared to Asus’ 6.6 percent. Unnamed brands enjoyed the remaining 19 percent of market share.

The PC market has been weak for the past six years as PCs have failed to excite consumers while smartphones and tablets detract from PC demand. But 2017 saw a slight improvement in demand, thanks to commercial upgrades and gaming PCs in Europe and Asia.