Notebook PC shipments improve after seven quarters of decline, claims report

Following seven consecutive quarters of declining shipments, there's a glimmer of hope for notebooks as the global notebook PC market improved over the second quarter of 2014, according to NPD DisplaySearch's Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report.

"North America and Western Europe have improved to positive double digit growth, due to a combination of commercial PC replacement cycles and Windows XP migration in 2014," said Hisakazu Torii, vice president, smart application research at NPD DisplaySearch. "The notebook PC market has also benefited from the launch of Chromebooks and other low-priced notebook PCs."

Following a precipitous decline of 20 percent last year, year-over-year growth for the top five notebook PC brands collectively reached 16 percent in Q2 2014. Strong sales in Europe, China, and Latin America allowed Lenovo to overtake HP to lead the pack with an 18 percent shipment unit share.

Asus overtook Dell to take the number three spot, mostly as a result of increased shipments in Europe, China, and Asia.

While notebooks are enjoying a reprieve, shipments of tablet PCs continued to fall over Q2, declining 12 percent year-over-year and negative growth being shown by the top five brands.

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