Global shipments of personal computers declined by nearly one-third compared to a year ago with Apple’s products experiencing the largest year-over-year drop, according to a new report.
Global shipments of traditional PCs dipped by 29% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same quarter of 2022 to 56.9 million shipments based on a preliminary analysis by the International Data Corporation (IDC). In its analysis, IDC classifies desktops, notebooks and workstations as traditional PCs and excludes tablets from this report.
Apple shipments fell by 40.5% from 6.9 million in the first quarter of 2022 to 4.1 million in the last three months. That cut Apple’s market share in the personal computer space to 7.2% from 8.6% a year ago, per IDC’s report.
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The total number of shipments declined for each company surveyed by IDC. Market share ticked up slightly for HP to 21.1% in the first quarter of 2023 from 19.7% in the same period a year ago.
IDC attributed the decline in shipments to weak demand, excess inventory and a worsening macroeconomic environment. It noted that shipment volume not only declined year-over-year but also came in lower than pre-pandemic levels as the first quarters of 2018 and 2019 saw 60.6 million and 59.2 million shipments, respectively.
"Though channel inventory has depleted in the last few months, it’s still well above the healthy four to six week range," said Jitesh Ubrani, IDC’s research manager for mobility and consumer device trackers. "Even with heavy discounting, channels and PC makers can expect elevated inventory to persist into the middle of the year and potentially into the third quarter."
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The lighter demand and pause in growth are giving the supply chain an opportunity to evaluate the possibility of moving factories outside of China, and PC makers are reassessing their plans for the rest of the year according to the report.
IDC wrote that "PC shipments will likely suffer in the near term with a return to growth towards the end of the year with an expected improvement in the global economy and as the installed base begins to think about upgrading to Windows 11."
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Linn Huang, IDC’s research vice president for devices and displays, said that there could be a "significant market upside" for PCs and similar devices in 2024 if the economy is trending up by then but noted, "If recession in key markets drags on into next year, recovery could be a slog."
