Worldwide PC shipments drop despite economy recovery

Rising costs and inventory replenishment led to a surge in shipments in the previous quarter

Worldwide shipments of traditional PCs dipped 2.4 per cent year-on-year, from 70.5 million to 68.8 million units during the third quarter of 2024, despite the global economy showing signs of recovery.

That is according to IDC, whose preliminary figures include shipments to distribution channels or end users.

“Demand, without a doubt, has returned for PCs amongst consumers and commercial buyers,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.

Ubrani added newer AI PCs such as Copilot+ PCs from Qualcomm along with Intel and AMD’s equivalent chips and Apple’s M4-based Macs are expected to drive the premium segment in coming months.

Lenovo led the pack in Q3 with 16.5 million units shipped, representing 24 per cent of the market (prior year: 22.7 per cent).

But other vendors have dropped; Dell Technologies shipped 9.8 million laptops (prior year: 10.3 million), while Apple shipped 5.3 million (prior year: seven million).

The market analyst said factors including rising costs and inventory replenishment led to a surge in shipments in the previous quarter, resulting in a slightly slower sales cycle.

“While we expect AI to reach ubiquity at some point at the end of this decade, the ramp up towards mass market will take longer than expected, well into 2026,” said research vice president of devices and displays, Linn Huang.

Next year 114 million AI PCs are expected to be shipped globally, an increase of 165.5 per cent from 2024, Gartner senior research director Ranjit Atwal told CRN last month.

The Gartner analyst said the likes of Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Nvidia will be at the forefront of this rise in AI PCs, adding that China will be a very important market, as the country is a big consumer of PCs.

“Lenovo, who is a global Chinese PC manufacturer, will definitely have an advantage there, especially since the company has built its own China chatbot and small language model,” Atwal told CRN.

IDC’s results saw key markets like Japan grow double digits in Q3 2024, but other regions are expected to follow in the coming quarters.

“After two quarters of mild growth, the market is taking a breather before going into the year-end buying period," said Bryan Ma, vice president with IDC's worldwide device trackers.