PC market 'not in downward spiral' despite witnessing first declines since Covid
IDC says PCs saw ‘change of momentum’ in 2022 but dismisses any talk of a market in the dire straights
The PC market is not in a downward spiral, claims IDC, despite logging its first quarter of year-on-year declines since the Covid pandemic began.
Global shipments of PCs including desktops, notebooks and workstations declined 5.1 per cent year on year during the first three months of 2022.
It marks the first quarterly decline for the PC market following two straight years of double-digit growth amid a boom in demand because of the Covid pandemic.
But despite the "change of momentum", IDC said that the figures should not be interpreted as the start of a "downwards spiral" for the PC market.
The analyst firm said shipment declines in Q1 were less severe than forecasts suggested. It also pointed to the fact that PC vendors shipped 80.5 million units during the three-month period, marking the seventh quarter in a row in which shipments have surpassed 80 million - a feat not seen since 2012.
IDC noted that PC vendors managed to maintain such high shipment levels even amid ongoing logistics and supply chain challenges as well as geopolitical and pandemic-related disruption.
"We have witnessed some slowdown in both the education and consumer markets, but all indicators show demand for commercial PCs remains very strong. We also believe that the consumer market will pick up again in the near future. The result of 1Q22 was PC shipment volumes that were near record levels for a first quarter," said Ryan Reith, group VP of IDC's worldwide mobile device trackers.
IDC claims Lenovo, HP and Dell were the top three vendors by global shipment levels in Q1, with Lenovo shipping 18.3 million units, HP 15.8 million and Dell 13.7 million.
Lenovo and HP both lost market share in Q1 with shipments declining year on year by 9.2 per cent and 17.8 per cent respectively, while Dell increased its shipment levels by 6.1 per cent compared with Q1 of 2021.
Apple was the fourth largest vendor by shipment levels globally, with the Mac Book maker increasing its shipments by 4.3 per cent during the quarter to 7.2 million units.
The year-on-year dip in overall shipments in Q1 2022 comes after the PC market closed a second consecutive year of bumper shipment levels in 2021. IDC had previously stated that shipments were 14.8 per cent higher in 2021 than in 2020 with vendors shipping 348.8 million units during the year.
The PC market closed off 2021 with modest growth, with Q4 shipments up one per cent year on year to 92.7 million units.