There’s some bad news for PC manufacturers. Global PC shipments in the third quarter decreased by 1.3% year-on-year to 62.9 million units. This decline follows three consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth in the PC market.
Mikako Kitagawa, Director Analyst at Gartner, attributes this decline to several factors. “Despite the availability of Windows-based AI PCs in both Arm and x86, these devices have not yet stimulated significant demand,” she explained. “Buyers are still waiting for their benefits and business value to be clearly demonstrated.”
Mr. Kitagawa also noted that the expected surge in demand for Windows PC refreshes due to the approaching end of support for Windows 10 in 2025 did not fully materialize in the third quarter. This was due to economic difficulties in some regions.
Despite the setback, Gartner maintains a positive outlook for the PC market. “The overall trajectory remains on a recovery track,” Kitagawa asserted. “We expect adoption to increase towards the end of 2024, with further robust growth in 2025 as PC refresh cycles peak.”
The top four vendor rankings remained unchanged from last year, with Lenovo, HP Inc., Apple, and Acer all experiencing year-over-year growth. On the other hand, Dell and ASUS’ shipments decreased.
Performance by region
The US market bucked global trends, with more than 17 million PCs shipped and growth of 5.6%. This can be attributed to stable macroeconomic conditions and strong demand from the public and education sectors.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region suffered its first decline after three-quarters of growth, with shipments down 1.5%. This may be due to temporary factors such as political elections or major sporting events.
The Asia-Pacific market decreased by 8.5%, mainly due to continued weakness in China, and shipments decreased by 10% due to lower demand from governments and state-owned enterprises.
In a positive development, Japan recorded double-digit year-on-year growth in PC shipments for the first time in three years, led by companies preparing for the end of support deadline for Windows 10.
Overall, global PC shipments declined slightly in the third quarter of 2024, but industry analysts remain optimistic about the market’s long-term recovery and growth prospects.
