Global PC Shipments Hold Reasonably Steady

Two prominent market researchers have released nearly concurrent reports on near-term global PC shipments.

According to IDC, worldwide shipments of traditional PCs dipped 2.4% year-over-year (YoY) to 68.8 million units, during the third quarter of 2024 (3Q24). 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,” said 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.”

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,” said 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.”

Meanwhile, according to Canalys, the global PC market grew year on year for a fourth consecutive quarter, with total shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations up 1.3% to 66.4 million units. Notebook shipments (including mobile workstations) reached 53.5 million units, up 2.8%, while desktop shipments (including desktop workstations) contracted 4.6% to 12.9 million units.

“Although growth in Q3 was modest, the PC market recovery is now well underway with a number of positive signals indicating stronger performance in the coming quarters,” said Ishan Dutt, Principal Analyst at Canalys. “Commercial procurement is expected to remain elevated throughout the rest of this year, with 54% of channel partners surveyed by Canalys anticipating growth in their PC business in H2 2024 compared with the same period last year.”

According to Canalys, the next 12 months are set for continued strong growth as a large proportion of the Windows PC installed base still needs to be refreshed before the end of life of Windows 10 in October 2025.

Channel Impact^®
Readers examining the variances in the two reports should note that the IDC data is based on traditional PCs, whereas the Canalys report includes desktops, notebooks, workstations and mobile workstations.