Following two years of growth, personal computing (PC) shipments dropped by 15.3% year over year to 71.3 million units in the second quarter of 2022 (2Q22), the second-worst quarter, according to the International Data Corp. (IDC).

Lockdowns in China affected the supply and logistics for device manufacturing and economic uncertainties may have contributed to the decline, said IDC in its media release.

“Fears over a recession continue to mount and weaken demand across segments,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers. “Consumer demand for PCs has weakened in the near term and is at risk of perishing in the long term as consumers become more cautious about their spending and once again grow accustomed to computing across device types such as phones and tablets. Meanwhile, commercial demand has been more robust although it has also declined as businesses delay purchases.”

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Lenovo topped the list with a 24.6% market share, up from 23.7% in the same period in 2021. HP Inc. grabs the second spot with 18.9% market share, followed by Dell Technologies (18.5%), Acer Group (6.9%), and Apple (6.7%) and Asus (6.6%) are on a statistical tie in the fifth place. IDC expects Apple to ramp up its production in the second half of the year.

Compared to pre-pandemic levels the volume is still well above despite the decline. IDC recorded that the total PC volume is still comparable to the beginning of the pandemic when volumes reached 74.3 million in the second quarter of 2020. Pre-pandemic levels as volumes in the second quarter of 2018 and 2019 were 62.1 million and 65.1 million units respectively.

“With education PC appetite saturating and consumer demand stagnating, the U.S. PC market is staring at another quarter of double-digit decline across most segments,” said Neha Mahajan, research manager with IDC’s Devices and Displays team. “Commercial PC demand is also showing signs of a slowdown, however, there are still pockets of growth expected in certain commercial sub-segments where demand for low-mid range Windows devices remains active and unfilled.”