PC shipments have fallen in the first three months of the year, according to Gartner, having enjoyed a period of growth last year.
Around 71.7m PCs were shipped between January and March, according to the research firm, down 5.2% on the same period of 2014.
Having been under pressure from tablets and smartphones in recent years, PC shipments were boosted last year by companies upgrading their hardware as Microsoft ended its support of the Windows XP operating system.
This increase appears to have been a relatively short-term one, however, with Gartner noting a rapid decline in desktop PC shipments in the first three months of the year.
But the firm is somewhat optimistic about PC sales in the long-term, which it expects to enter a slow but consistent growth stage over the next five years.
This view is underlined by stronger demand for laptops, Windows-based tablets and hybrid devices that can be used as either a laptop or tablet.
Shipments of these mobile PCs was up year-on-year in the three months to March, Gartner said.
Overall Lenovo recorded the largest number of shipments between January and March with almost 13.6m PCs.
HP was the second largest at 12.4m shipments, with the two firms the only ones to register growth compared to the same quarter of last year.
Dell shipped over 9m units in the three months to March, down 5.1% on the first quarter of 2014.
