PC shipments dip, despite recovery economy

Even though the global economy shows signs of recovery, worldwide shipments of traditional PCs dipped 2,4% year-over-year (YoY) to 68,8-million units, during the third quarter of 2024 (3Q24), according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.

Factors including rising costs and inventory replenishment led to a surge in shipments in the previous quarter, resulting in a slightly slower sales cycle.

“Demand, without a doubt, has returned for PCs amongst consumers and commercial buyers,” says Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “However, much of the demand was still concentrated at the entry-level thanks to a recovering economy and the back-to-school season in North America.

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

Linn Huang, IDC’s research vice-president: devices and displays, adds: “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. The next year-and-change will be largely about developing software, use cases, and target audiences for this AI-enabled hardware.”

Commercial demand outside the education sector also remained strong as many businesses have begun to refresh their PCs in preparation for the end of support for Windows 10. Key markets such as Japan grew double digits during 3Q24 and is leading this transition, but IDC expects other markets to follow suit in the coming quarters.

Meanwhile, Apple had a strong 1H24 and YoY comparison base before its new products are expected to launch.

“After two quarters of mild growth, the market is taking a breather before going into the year-end buying period,” says Bryan Ma, vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Device Trackers. “Downside risks remain in the current geopolitical environment, but we think there is enough upside going into next year to lift the market into modest single-digit growth.”