The PC market has seen a significant decline in the fourth quarter of 2022, as evidenced by the latest market report from the International Data Corporation. Global shipments of traditional PCs dropped to 67.2 million units, a decrease of 28.1 percent compared to the same period in 2021. Lenovo led the way in the fourth quarter, shipping 15.5 million PCs, followed by HP with 13.2 million units. Dell came in third with 10.8 million systems shipped during the holiday quarter and Apple sold 7.5 million Macs. Despite discounting efforts to spur demand, inventory management remains a key issue in the coming quarters and could affect average selling prices. The general consensus is that the PC market segments could return to growth by the end of 2023, with a broader market recovery to follow sometime in 2024. Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 could also increase sales in the near future. With a global market share of nearly 68 percent, Windows 10 is not far from reaching its own end of life date in October 2025.
In short: the pandemic boom in the PC market is over, as evidenced by the latest market report from the International Data Corporation. Global shipments of traditional PCs fell to 67.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2022. That’s down 28.1 percent from the same period in 2021 and comparable to the fourth quarter of 2018, when Intel hesitance with the supply of processors.
Lenovo led the way in the fourth quarter, shipping 15.5 million PCs, followed by HP with 13.2 million units. Dell came in third with 10.8 million systems shipped during the holiday quarter, while Apple sold 7.5 million Macs during the same period. All of them showed negative growth compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.
For the full year, 292.3 million devices were shipped, well above the pre-pandemic level. There is cause for concern, however, as IDC notes that many consumers have relatively new computers and the global economy is not in the best shape.
Like Adobe noted in its recent analysis of holiday shopping, retailers turned to discounting in the fourth quarter to spur demand. The PC industry was not immune, as average selling prices (ASPs) across multiple channels fell in hopes of moving excess inventory.
IDC research manager Jitesh Ubrani noted that despite the efforts, inventory management will remain a key issue in the coming quarters and may continue to affect ASP.
According to the research firm, the general consensus is that PC market segments could return to growth by the end of 2023, with a broader market recovery to follow sometime in 2024.
Earlier this week, Microsoft ended support for the Windows 7 and Windows 8, which may increase sales in the near future. According to StatCounter, Windows 7’s global market share as of December 2022 was 11.2 percent, while Windows 8 was installed on just 0.66 percent of computers worldwide.
Windows 10, with a market share of nearly 68 percent, isn’t that far from reaching deprecated status either. Microsoft has set a retirement date of October 14, 2025.
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