Worldwide PC shipments fall

The global PC market faced a significant drop in demand in the third quarter of 2022. Total shipments of desktops and notebooks fell 18% to 69.4 million units, as existing weakness in the consumer and education segments was exacerbated by more cautious IT spending by businesses.

Most of the other major PC makers experienced business decline, with most in double digit territory. Whereas, Gartner says that, the worldwide PC shipments were down 19.6%, again with comparable losses for competitors, but with another big discrepancy in the Apple number with Gartner finding it falling 15.6% year over year.

As per Canalys, adverse macroeconomic and industry factors including high inflation, rising interest rates and bloated channel inventories have dented the PC market’s momentum, and are likely to persist into 2023. Notebook shipments suffered the most, posting a year-on-year decline of 19% with 54.7 million units shipped. Desktop shipments proved more robust due to less reliance on consumer spending, falling 11% year-on-year for a total of 14.7 million units.

Lenovo maintained pole position in the global PC market but suffered a 16% year-on-year drop to 16.9 million units. For the second quarter in a row, HP underwent the largest decline out of the top five vendors as it posted 12.7 million units, a 28% year-on-year fall.

Both Lenovo and HP shipped their lowest totals since the onset of the pandemic in Q1 2020. Third-placed Dell also posted a significant decline of 21% in shipments, posting just under 12 million units.

Apple enjoyed a better quarter than its competitors as it fulfilled orders from Q2 delayed due to supply disruptions in China and launched new M2 Macbooks. It sealed fourth place with 8.0 million units, a modest year-on-year increase of 2%. Asus rounded out the top five with 5.5 million units, an annual decrease of 8%.

PC sales posted their fastest growth in 20 years during the first quarter of 2021 as consumers and businesses bought new laptops and desktops for remote work and learning. In 2021, PC sales grew about 15%, returning to 2012 levels after nearly a decade of slow or no growth.

Companies allowed employees to log into their systems with hastily deployed VPNs without hardening home networks. In many cases, employees used their company-issued laptops for personal enjoyment, like shopping, surfing the net, etc.—all outside of the corporate protective bubble.

Now those laptops are returned to the company, hence there is a surplus of PCs with the organisations, this is also the reason for no bulk purchase from the corporate world but the surprising part is Corporates must acknowledge the increased sales during the pandemic and made huge profit from the crisis. Tech giants have reported soaring profits as consumers upgraded their devices and sought cloud storage during lockdowns.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA