Vendor Highlights

Lenovo took the top PC vendor title, continuing its streak of gains following channel expansion and solid product development. In 2Q13, Lenovo continued to make impressive gains outside of APeJ. However, the headwinds in China continued to affect its home turf significantly. Lenovo ended the quarter with a double-digit decline in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan). Overall growth has slowed from prior quarters, and slipped into negative territory this quarter, but still outpaced the market and top competitors.

HP slipped to second place, but growth improved from recent quarters. The company received a strong boost from shipments to India as part of large education projects. Shipments continued to decline significantly in EMEA, although the company's U.S. business stabilized a bit after a significant decline in the first quarter of 2013.

Dell despite ongoing uncertainty surrounding its restructuring, the firm performed above market with a decline of -4.5%. As with HP, this was a significant improvement from the past year that was aided by improving growth in the United States. The firm continued to seek opportunities at all levels of the pricing spectrum and managed to perform above market in all key regions except Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan).

Acer Group continued to see substantial declines in shipments across regions as the company was strongly impacted by weak consumer demand. Although it has been aggressive in expanding more premium offerings to offset falling mini notebook sales, Acer has been hampered by slow demand for pricier ultrabooks.

ASUS shipments were constrained by inventory clearance challenges in key regions. Despite its focus on innovative designs, its relative weakness in the commercial space coupled with an intrinsically depressed consumer market led the vendor to see a decline of over 20%.