The “Big Two” analyst firms, Gartner Inc. and International Data Corp. (IDC), have proclaimed that 2015 was a disastrous year for the PC, with both reporting steep declines in shipments over the last year.

The analysts also note that neither Windows 10 nor Christmas failed to boost sales as much as vendors would have liked. Fourth quarter shipments fell by 8.3 percent compared to the previous year to just 74.7 million units, according to Gartner. As for the entire year, shipments declined by 8 percent to a total of 288.7 million.

IDC’s numbers were equally grim. It reports an even bigger decline in annual shipments, down 10.6 percent.

The numbers represent the fifth consecutive quarterly decline for worldwide PC shipments, with decreases in every region according to Gartner’s principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa.

However, Kitagawa did offer PC vendors some hope when he said that Windows 10 may yet help to drive new shipments. He pointed out that most enterprises take their time to upgrade to newer operating systems due to the need to test for compatibility with existing applications.

“On the business side, Windows 10 generally received positive reviews, but as expected, Windows 10 migration was minor in the fourth quarter as many organizations were just starting their testing period,” Kitagawa said.

But Lynn Huang, research director of devices and displays at IDC, opined that the free upgrades to Windows 10 for consumer PCs may have actually harmed shipments.

“The free upgrade path to Windows 10 allowed some consumers who might otherwise have shopped for new PCs during the holiday season to obtain a ‘new’ PC experience,” Huang said. She added that the launch of the latest iPad Pro may also have had an impact on consumer’s interest in PCs.

Major PC vendors Acer Inc., ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (Asus), Dell Inc., HP Inc., and Lenovo Group Ltd. all saw PC shipments decline over the last year, with only Apple managing to achieve growth. It saw PC sales rise by 2.8 percent year over year, Gartner said.

There is some good news on the horizon though. Gartner reckons that 2016 will only see a one percent decline in total PC shipments, with the outside chance that a solid fourth quarter could see shipments rise. IDC said that if detachables like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 are counted alongside PCs, it expects growth in the region of one to two percent.

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