PC sales fall for seventh consecutive quarter

PC sales have declined for the seventh consecutive quarter, falling 5.2 percent worldwide to 64.2 million.

The Asia-Pacific fared slightly worse in the second quarter of 2016, shipping 22.7 million units for a 6.3 percent fall compared to the second quarter of 2015.

Industry analyst firm Gartner said a stagnant economy in the region put pressure on discretionary spending, as well as the rise in popularity of smartphones over PCs.

It cited the recent Australian election period, as well as elections in Philippines and South Korea, for a lull in IT spending from the government sector.

The USA was the only market to increase PC sales, growing 1.4 percent to 15.2 million units.

Lenovo retained its number one spot for global PC sales with 13 million despite a drop of 2.2 percent. HP Inc, Dell, Asus and Acer all grew sales slightly, while Apple sales dropped 4.9 percent to 4.5 million.

Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa said Windows 10 presented an opportunity for businesses to refresh PC sales, but the result wouldn't be seen until the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017.

"While vendors and channels generally have more optimistic expectations of PC sales compared with the past, there is still a chance to have a potential inventory built. This will depend on how PC market demand picks up in the second half of this year for both the business and consumer segments," said Kitagawa.

Data for specific countries will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Last week, Gartner predicted Australia's technology market would grow 2.8 percent in 2016 to reach AU$83.3 billion. Services is still the biggest spending category, with software as the fastest growing segment.