Sales of personal computing (PC) devices are dropping, according to the latest data from market intelligence firm International Data Corp., Global shipments for traditional PC fell by 28.1% compared to the year 2021.
“It is clear the pandemic boom is over for the PC market,” IDC said.
However, annual shipments for 2022 were well above pre-pandemic levels, IDC said. PC shipments for 2022 reached 292.3 million units including the 67.2 million shipped during the fourth quarter of 2022.
“The 4Q22 shipments are comparable to the fourth quarter of 2018, when the market was constrained by Intel’s supply challenges,” IDC said. “Demand remains a concern as most users have relatively new PCs and the global economy worsens.”
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Among the vendors, Lenovo remained on top with a 23.3% market share shipping 68 million units in 2022. In 2021, the company shipped 81.8 million.
HP Inc. comes in second with 55.3 million PC shipments and 18.9% market share. Completing the top 5 vendors are Dell Technologies which posted a 17% market share (49.8 million units); Apple with a market share of 9.8% (28.6 million units); ASUS with a market share of 7% (20.6 million units).
Return to growth
“Average selling prices (ASPs) across many channels also fell as excess channel inventory over the course of the past few months triggered discounting in an effort to spur demand,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. “Despite these efforts, inventory management of finished PCs as well as components will remain a key issue in the coming quarters and has the potential to further affect ASPs.”
Supply-side activity shows many large vendors entered 2023 with a cautious outlook, but the consensus is that portions of the PC market could return to growth in late 2023 with the overall market following in 2024. The commercial segment has several drivers toward growth, including the approaching end of support for Windows 10 and a building refresh cycle, while the consumer market remains a wildcard for 2023 and beyond.
“Consecutive quarters of declines clearly paint a gloomy picture of the PC market, but this is really all about perception,” said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. “2021 was near historic levels for PC shipments, so any comparison is going to be distorted. There’s no question when we look back at this time that the rise and fall of the PC market will be one for the record books, but plenty of opportunity still lies ahead. We firmly believe the market has the potential to recover in 2024 and we also see pockets of opportunity throughout the remainder of 2023.”