PC industry slowly recovering after historic decline
The PC industry is on a slow path to recovery. The downward spiral for PC shipments continued during the third quarter of 2023 compared to last year but shipments have increased in each of the last two quarters, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Market research firm Gartner says that while the third quarter’s results mark the eighth consecutive quarter of decline for the global PC market, growth can be expected again in the fourth quarter of this year.
Oversupply and continued low demand for PCs due to economic uncertainties and a lack of purchase motivation led to the second consecutive quarter of historic year-over-year decline in PC sales.
Global volumes declined 7.6% in the third quarter year over year with 68.2 million PCs shipped. Though demand and the global economy remain subdued, PC shipments have increased in each of the last two quarters, slowing the rate of annual decline and indicating that the market has moved past the bottom of the trough, IDC says.
“The PC industry is on a slow path to recovery as a device refresh cycle and end of support for Windows 10 will help drive sales in the second half of 2024 and beyond. In the meantime, the PC industry will unfortunately experience more pain,” says Jitesh Ubrani, IDC research manager.
“Generative AI could be a watershed moment for the PC industry,” says Linn Huang, IDC research vice president.
” AI PCs promise organizations the ability to personalize the user experience at a deeper level all while being able to preserve data privacy and sovereignty. As more of these devices launch next year, we expect a significant boost to overall selling prices.”
IDC says downward pressure on pricing persists and will likely remain an issue within the consumer and business sectors. Most of the top 5 vendors experienced double-digit declines during the quarter.
“There is evidence that the PC market’s decline has finally bottomed out,” says Mikako Kitagawa, Director Analyst at Gartner.
“Seasonal demand from the education market boosted shipments in the third quarter, although enterprise PC demand remained weak, offsetting some growth. Vendors also made consistent progress towards reducing PC inventory, with inventory expected to return to normal by the end of 2023, as long as holiday sales do not collapse.”
The top vendors in the worldwide PC market remained unchanged in the third quarter of 2023, with Lenovo maintaining the No. 1 spot in shipments with 25.1% market share.
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