Research firm Gartner said that personal computer shipments worldwide have dropped during the first quarter compared to the shipments for the previous year.

The research firm revealed that PC shipments that totaled 71.7 million units during the Jan-March period have declined by about 5.2 % from the same period last year.

The data showed the lowest number of PC shipments since the second quarter of 2009. The decline during the March quarter happened mainly by change in consumption habits of a generation of data-hungry technology customers who use smartphones, tablets and hybrid notebooks.

The PC industry has also been hit hard as corporations slowed the rate at which they refresh employee desktops, unlike in 2014 when the end of the Windows XP support cycle prompted a scramble in system replacements worldwide.

Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner said, “The PC industry received a boost in 2014 as many companies replaced their PCs due to the end of Windows XP support, but that replacement cycle faded in the first quarter of 2015”.

However, the decline is not necessarily an indication of overall slow PC sales in long term. It’s just that there is currently no strong driver for growth in sales of PCs.

The first quarter indicated a moderate decline of PC shipments in 2015, which will eventually lead to a slow, consistent growth stage for the next five years. Sales of mobile PCs, which include notebooks, hybrid and Windows tablets grew more than previous year.

The only PC vendors that witnessed an increase in PC shipments were Lenono and Hewlett-Packard. Lenovo Group earned top position in world-wide shipments, while Hewlett-Packard Co was second place globally. Dell experienced its first PC shipment decline in six quarters. Dell Inc. remained in third place world-wide.