Beating expectations.

PC shipments, including desktop and notebooks reached 1.12 million units 4Q2016, a year-on-year (YoY) 3.2% decline, according to International Data Corporation (IDC) Asia Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker. However, the market performed better than expected, compared to the previous forecast of -10.2%

Annual shipments of traditional PCs slipped to 4.01 million units, down 7.2% from 2015 with the first half still constrained by Dick Smith’s exit, high inventory and free Windows 10 upgrades. It bounced back in the 2016 second half, thanks to a significant hardware refreshment push, both within enterprise and public sectors.

The commercial segment posted a decline of 1.4% in 4Q2016.  “Bring your own device (BYOD) seems to be fading away, particularly within the education segment, as several state education departments have returned to a centralised purchasing policy,”  IDC Australia client devices analyst, Sagar Raghavendra said. “The result is evident, as the education segment posted a growth of 36.4% YoY while the public sector grew 25.6% YoY followed by growth in the corporate segment at 25.3% YoY.

On the other hand, the SMB segment declined 28.7% YoY. “The Windows 10 free upgrade seems to have helped the SMBs to extend their hardware refresh cycles resulting in a downward curve for SMBs”, he said.  The consumer segment declined 5% YoY with Microsoft and Intel’s continued incentive to OEMs helping to alleviate the decline in the market, as this segment performed better than the original forecast, according to Raghavendra.

The notebook PC market remained flat YoY, with the convertible form factor continuing to drive growth, posting a YoY growth of 41.8%. Desktop PCs declined 10.8% despite more demand for small/micro form factors. “The market responded well to Intel’s Skylake processor launch in late 2015 but the same was not visible with the Kabylake processor launch at the end of 2016, as the desktop PC market attracted only a lukewarm response.”

HP continues to hold the top position with a market share of 27.4% with growth largely aided by a strong performance from education and public sectors. Apple remained at the second position with a share of 16.9%, with the majority of its growth coming from national retail. Lenovo maintained its third spot, at 16.1%.with Dell and Acer completing the top five rankings with 14.5% and 12.2% respectively. Acer gained about 4.4% market share from the previous year, with a consistent growth in consumer and education segments, including a large Chromebook deployment.

Australia PC shipments are forecast to decline by 5.5% 2017, followed by a relatively softer decline of 3.5% in 2018, according to an updated forecast from the IDC APAC Quarterly PC Tracker.