Gartner: Microsoft passes Acer to become top 5 PC vendor in the U.S.

The PC market is seeing some very interesting moves this year. In Q2 2018, global shipments were up for the first time in six years — it was the first quarter of year-over-year global PC shipment growth since the first quarter of 2012. Now we’re learning that in Q3 2018, Microsoft broke into the top five list of PC vendors in the U.S. for the first time with its line of Surface computers, laptops, and tablets.

Let’s cover the big picture stuff first. Q3 2018 was flat; it did not continue the growth we saw in the previous quarter. Gartner estimates that worldwide PC shipments increased 0.1 percent to 67.2 million units, while IDC counts a 0.9 percent decline to 67.4 million units. Gartner’s top five vendors were Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, and Acer (in that order) while IDC’s were Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, and Apple (also in that order).