According to the results of the last quarter, the global PC market shrank by 22.4% year-on-year to 55.4 million units, as Gartner analysts calculated. At the same time, rising prices for memory and storage devices caused an increase in PC prices, which scared off some potential buyers. At the same time, three of the six largest suppliers in a falling market were able to increase their share.
Image Source: AMD
According to representatives Gartnerincreased prices for memory and storage are now fully reflected in the cost of the PC. During the second quarter, DRAM prices increased fivefold compared to the same period last year. PC manufacturers passed on increased costs to buyers, which caused a sharp decline in PC shipments in the third quarter.
The previous time PC sales volumes were at this level was at the beginning of 2023, although the market dynamics were very different then. Manufacturers did not face significant surpluses of finished goods, but demand decreased due to increased prices, and manufacturers focused on producing more expensive PC configurations. At the same time, they tried to optimize their existing components, as a result, the entry-level price segment could not boast a large selection of offers, and corporate buyers focused on selective purchases such as workstations and PCs with AI functions, but did not massively update their PC fleet.
According to Gartner, all six major PC vendors experienced declines in product shipments in the third quarter. Leading Lenovo reduced them by 22.4% to 14.99 million units, retaining 27.1% of the global market. HP Inc. in second place it had to drop from 21 to 18.7%, while its supply volumes in annual comparison decreased by 30.9% to 10.37 million PCs – the maximum among the six largest market participants. In the case of this company, its focus on the mass segments of the consumer and corporate markets played against it.
Image source: Gartner
Dell PC shipments decreased by 25.4% to 7.58 million units, and its share dropped from 14.3 to 13.7%. Apple in fourth place suffered the weakest decline of 7.1% to 5.84 million PCs shipped, but its share of the global market even increased from 8.8 to 10.5%. In fifth place is Asus, which limited itself to reducing PC shipments by 13% to 4.7 million units, but also increased its share from 7.5 to 8.5%. Even Acer in sixth place, with shipments falling by 11.2% to 3.87 million units, was able to strengthen its market position from 6.1 to 7.0%.
All other PC manufacturers at the end of the third quarter collectively controlled no more than 14.5% compared to 15.1% a year earlier, and the volume of shipments of their products decreased by 25.6% to 8.03 million units. In total, 55.35 million PCs were shipped to the global market in the third quarter, which is 22.4% less than the result of the same period last year.
Previously published IDC statistics say that in the third quarter, PC shipments decreased by 20.1% to 62.7 million units. Apple and Asus also resisted the decline better than others, but Acer in these statistics belonged to the “other” suppliers that are grouped outside the top five. Moreover, PC shipments declined 9.1% sequentially in the third quarter, generally inconsistent with long-term seasonal trends. Unlike IDC representatives, Gartner analysts do not believe that Lenovo has reduced its presence in the PC market compared to the third quarter of last year.
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