Canalys has reported that PC shipments in Western Europe fell by 18% during the second quarter. The decline represented the second consecutive quarter of decline and was caused by poor notebook and tablet sales. Notebooks saw an 18% year-on-year decline to 12.3 million shipments, and desktops grew 22% year-on-year to 2.7 million shipments. Tablet sales were hit worst, shrinking 24% to 5.9 million units.
The blame for the decrease in sales was put on supply chain disruptions. As various areas in China were in lockdown during the quarter, many factories, and ports were stifled. While things got better at the end of May, the losses at the start of the quarter couldn’t be recovered. In addition to the delays, inflation also caused people to cut back their spending, which further hurt PC sales.
Of the top desktop, notebook, and workstation vendors (not including tablets), Apple saw the biggest hit in Western Europe with shipments falling from 1.36 million in Q2 2021 to 788 thousand in Q2 2022. This was a huge 42% drop and its market share fell from 9% to 6.4%. The best performer was Lenovo, which still saw an 8.2% drop in shipments. It sold 4.12 million units in Q2 2021 and 3.79 million units in Q2 2022.
While the lockdowns may not be hindering the supply chain now, energy bills in Western Europe are sky-high. This will drastically hit finances in places like the UK, which could cause PC sales to remain low for the rest of the year and possibly a good chunk of next year. The Trades Union Congress in the UK last week reported that energy bills will cost two months of wages next year if action isn’t taken, so people’s ability to buy new PCs could be non-existent.
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