HN Works - stock.adobe.com
Lenovo and Microsoft strike upbeat tone over PC prospects
There are clear factors driving demand for the latest hardware, with 2025 set to be a year of growth
The combination of a Windows refresh and the emergence of more artificial intelligence (AI)-capable PCs has given two of the largest vendors a sense of optimism about their prospects for the next year.
In keynote sessions at the Canalys Channel Forum, executives from Lenovo and Microsoft shared their thoughts on the forces driving improvements in the fortunes of the PC market.
Lenovo is expecting PC growth in the next couple of years as the impact of AI-capable products filters into sales.
The vendor is not only anticipating shipments will increase, but also that average sale prices will rise because of the improved specifications of AI machines.
Luca Rossi, president of IDG and executive vice-president of the Lenovo Group, said the future was looking more positive, and the migration to Windows 11 was also a factor that would support hardware manufacturers. “Windows 10, end of life in October ’25 ... will definitely drive PC substitution, change, replacement,” he said.
That added to AI and the number of legacy PCs users were sitting on because of the forced purchases made during the pandemic was all working in the industry’s favour. “In 2025, the market will grow between five and 10% for PC, and I also see a similar value in 2026 now this is the PC world, but think about AI in tablets, in smartphones, in IoT [internet of things] devices, in talking stations,” said Rossi. “I think the revenue in the next three years, at least for the devices, is for it to grow.
“Revenue duplication should be even higher, because these devices are carrying more memory content, more SSD storage content, typically the CPU or the NPU or the silicon is a bit more expensive, so we expect [average sale prices] to be 3, 5, 7% higher going forward,” he added.
Large offering
Rossi said the vendor had one of the largest AI-capable PC offerings available, and that more users were looking to work with the technology.
He said the firm took the view that there would be hybrid AI, with public sector customers looking to keep some of the data workloads on-premise and enterprise customers keen to use low-latency technology at the edge.
Dimitra Darda, general manager of device partner solutions sales for EMEA at Microsoft, was also upbeat about the prospects the shift to Windows 11 would create for partners.
She indicated that the vendor would be actively driving home the message around the end of life support for Windows 10 to spur customer migrations. “There is also a lot of investment that we are having in the channel to create this awareness,” said Darda. “What does it mean if they could be out of support some months from now?
“The second one is to help them explore the options they have, and the third is to work with them, and we are supporting them, to find the pilots and the right devices for their needs, to make them a plan for the migration together.”
Investment and support
Darda said Windows 10 had been a solid operating system but that users needed to migrate to the current offering to take advantage of the investment and support the vendor was providing.
“Windows 10, it was a great operating system, but Windows 11 is where Microsoft is doing the latest on the updates, significant reviews that we have for years, and also all the enhancements that we are doing in hardware, security and software,” she said.
