PC shipments continue to disappoint, but there is hope for 2024

The global PC shipment has seen a sharp decline since the massive boost it saw during the 2020 and 2021 as people transitioned to work from home, pushing them to buy new systems for their home offices.

Unfortunately, it looks like the global demand for PCs will stay tepid for the rest of the year. The International Data Corporation (IDC) has published a new report that forecasts a decline of 13.7 percent year over year, down to 252 million units. This is in line with the early reports that had expected a four percent decline in 2023.

Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers notes:

Consumer demand remains tepid at best as the segment continues to face economic headwinds. Consumer demand for PCs also faces challenges from other devices including smartphones, consoles, tablets, and more, marking 2023 as the year with the greatest annual decline in consumer PC shipments since the category's inception.

Furthermore, IDC notes that there an interesting shift happening in the PC market with AMD now holding 11 percent of the market share along with Apple who sits at 5 percent. This combined with the boom in generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has "IT decision makers questioning where to prioritize budgets".

Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile and Consumer Device Trackers said:

These days it's hard to have a conversation that doesn't involve AI and where and how to invest. Commercial PCs will remain interesting for years to come with technology advances adding an extra element to decision making, but it's important to remember that Windows 10 end of support comes in 2025 and this will drive commercial refresh regardless of whether companies are waiting on more advanced PCs or just needing to update an aging installed base. It seems clear that Apple sees an opportunity to continue its growth in the commercial segment and this will be an angle to watch closely going forward.

While, 2023 may be a disappointing year for personal computing, there is some hope for the next year as the company expects a 3.7 percent growth in 2024, or 261.4 million shipments during the year. This of course is still lower than 2019 but will surpass the 2018 numbers.