What JP Morgan Thinks Of Apple, Hewlett-Packard And Microsoft's PC/Tablet Businesses

JP Morgan analysts slashed their outlook for sales of PCs and tablets in 2015 in what mirrors a continuing spiral of lower and lower sales. Year-over-year, JP Morgan estimated that PC sales declined 6.1 percent, down sharply from its prior estimate of a 1.9 percent decline. That steep drop will be felt most heavily in desktop, which will decline 11.1 percent, compared with a 2.4 percent decline in notebooks.

In tablets, JP Morgan said that Q4 sales came in 6 percent below its estimate, causing the firm to cut 2015 tablet shipments by 1 percent. The analysts pegged tablet sales at 235 million, though they noted that number could grow if Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) launches iAnywhere, which would allow mobile devices to function as full-blown computers.

In PCs, JP Morgan said that Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) leads in the North American consumer and Western Europe business and consumer segments. In North America, HP has a 34 percent market share among consumers, compared with a 20 percent share for Dell. Among North American business purchases, Dell leads the segment with 28 percent share.

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In the computing space, the strong area continues to be servers. JP Morgan said that server growth continues and forecasted year-over-year gains of 1.8 percent, up marginally from 1.7 percent prior estimates.

Strong sales in the server arena may be propping up Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) this year. Both stocks have gained near 3 percent year-to-date, while HP and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) have declined 16.5 and 7.5 percent, respectively. Apple has stayed bid this year amid strong iPhone sales, gaining 16.5 percent.