Apple Leads Holiday PC Shipments Despite Market Contraction

Apple Inc. arose as one of the few winners in the PC industry during the holiday shopping season, according to new data released by Gartner. Total shipments of personal computers fell 8.3% during to the fourth quarter to 75.7 million units, pushing them down 8% on the year to 288.7 million, according to Gartner. Apple, the fifth-largest PC manufacturer by Gartner's estimates, saw quarterly shipments rise to 5.67 million from 5.52 million in the year-earlier period. Market leaders Lenovo, HP Inc. and Dell all faced decreases, with Lenovo's shipments declining to 15.4 million from 16.1 million, HP's dipping to 14.2 million from 15.4 million and Dell's dimming to 10.2 million from 10.8 million. The fourth quarter marked the fifth straight quarter of worldwide PC declines, and Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said holiday sales "did not boost" the market. Shares of Apple fell 0.1% in after-hours trade after closing up 1.5% to $99.96 in the regular session. Shares of HP Inc. were inactive.