IDC: Worldwide PC Shipments At Lowest In Six Years

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 68.5 million units in the first quarter of 2015, a year-over-year decline of 6.7%, the International Data Corp. said Thursday. That was the lowest volume since the first quarter of 2009. Following a strong second half of 2014, which "benefitted from the tailwind of the Windows XP refresh and pockets of price-driven consumer activity," the market faced headwinds in the quarter, including inventory build-up of Windows Bing-based notebooks, a commercial slowdown following the XP refresh, and constrained demand in many regions, IDC said. PC shipments in the U.S. fell at a slower rate than all other regions in first quarter, outperforming worldwide trends for the eleventh consecutive quarter, IDC said. U.S. shipments totaled 14.2 million PCs in the quarter, shrinking 1% from the same quarter a year ago.