Major PC providers experience a massive fall in PC shipments
Gartner’s preliminary market data for the PC industry show the boom experienced during the pandemic is over
The PC market has declined by almost 20%, according to the latest market data from analyst Gartner. Worldwide PC shipments totalled 68 million units in the third quarter of 2022, a 19.5% decrease from the third quarter of 2021. The analyst said the figure represents the steepest market decline since it began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s, and the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline.
“This quarter’s results could mark a historic slowdown for the PC market,” said Mikako Kitagawa, director analyst at Gartner. “While supply chain disruptions have finally eased, high inventory has now become a major issue given weak PC demand in both the consumer and business markets.
“Back-to-school sales ended with disappointing results despite massive promotions and price drops, due to a lack of need as many consumers had purchased new PCs in the past two years. On the business side, geopolitical and economic uncertainties led to more selective IT spending, and PCs were not at the top of the priority list.”
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the PC market experienced the biggest decline globally. The market for PCs in the region decreased 26.4% year-over-year in the third quarter, reaching 17 million units. Gartner said the decline is the third negative quarter for the EMEA PC market following a boom at the start of the pandemic.
“Multiple factors led to significant deterioration in the EMEA PC market, including challenging macroeconomic conditions, declining business and consumer demand, and high levels of inventory,” said Kitagawa. “Additionally, many PC vendors shuttered operations in Russia in the first two quarters of this year, which negatively impacted overall shipments and is particularly visible across year-to-year comparisons.”
The top three hardware providers in the worldwide PC market remained unchanged in the third quarter of 2022, with Lenovo maintaining the number-one spot in shipments with 25.2% market share.
HP, which was the second-largest PC company in terms of volume of devices shipped, experienced the largest decline in growth of almost 28%.
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Gartner said HP experienced a challenging quarter, with a sharp decline in overall global shipments. While it recorded growth in select regions in the desktop market, overall laptop shipments suffered declines.
Gartner’s figures also show that Dell narrowed its market share difference from HP, recording year-over-year growth in the desktop market in all regions except for Asia-Pacific. However, Dell’s laptop shipments declined in all regions except for Japan.
