Worldwide PC Shipments declined by 9% in Q3 2023
Gartner Research has published the preliminary results of Worldwide PC shipments for the third quarter of 2023. A total of 64.3 million units were sold collectively by OEMs, but only one company saw a positive year-over-year growth.
Lenovo topped the chart with a 25.1% market share, as it shipped over 16.1 million computers in the 3rd quarter of 2023. HP came in 2nd place with a 21.0 market share, and is the only vendor that actually improved its numbers over the previous year's 18% share. Everyone else, including the other major players like Dell, ASUS, and Acer, failed to post a positive growth in the previous quarter.
(Image via Gartner)
Gartner's Director Analyst, Mikato Kitagawa, attributed the education market's seasonal demands for boosting Chromebook shipments in the quarter. Enterprise PCs on the other hand did not add much to the numbers, especially in the U.S.
Apple Mac sales dropped 24%
Apple was the worst hit among the vendors, as it only managed to sell just over 6.2 million machines this quarter, compared to 8.2 million a year ago. This resulted in a drop from 11.7% market share in Q3 2022 to 9.7% in Q3 2033, which is a -24.2%year-over-year decline.
This was not unexpected, Apple has been experiencing a slump in Mac sales for the past few quarters as well. Experts had explained the decline was a result of the M2 MacBooks being slight spec bumps without a refreshed design. Analysts had believed that the introduction of a 15-inch MacBook Air would improve the sales numbers for Mac, but it hasn't really made an impact. The Cupertino company is not expected to release a new Mac this year, but the next-gen versions are expected to deliver a significant performance boost with the upcoming 3nm M3 chipsets. Apple is also said to be working on an iMac refresh, which has been due for a couple of years.
Things were not exactly great for Apple on home soil either, the statistics from shipments in the U.S. show a nearly identical slow down in the sales. Apple only managed to sell just under 3 million units in 3Q 23, compared to nearly 4 million Macs in the year before.
This marks the 8th consecutive quarter of decline for the computer market, which means the PC industry has not been stable for 2 years. That would be around the post COVID-19 period, the pandemic era saw a huge demand for computers as people had to study and work from home. But most people don't have a reason to upgrade their computers every year.
The worst may be over for PC vendors
Kitagawa said that the slump will soon be over, and that things will improve for PC vendors by the end of 2023. With the end of support for Windows 10 approaching in about two years, the demand for PCs will rise. Business PCs are getting ready for the next replacement cycle, and will likely be boosted by Windows 11 upgrades. The analyst also noted that consumer PCs during the pandemic are entering the early stages of a refresh cycle as well. PC shipments are expected to pick up during the holiday season of 2023.
Gartner is projecting a 4.9% growth for the worldwide PC market for 204, in both business and consumer markets.
