PC Shipments Worldwide Drop 15.3 Percent In Q2, IDC Warns

Analyst house IDC has published a worrying decline in the shipments of PCs, amid fears of global recession.

IDC on Monday revealed that worldwide PC shipments fell 15.3 percent in the second quarter of 2022, “as supply and demand both waver.”

It comes after Elon Musk axed 10,000 jobs at Tesla over his “superbad” feeling about the economy. Microsoft and other players in the tech space have also begun a hiring slowdown.

PC slowdown

Into this mix comes the IDC figures showing a 15.3 percent decline in PC shipments worldwide to 71.3 million units in the second quarter of 2022.

This was the second consecutive quarter of lower shipments following two years of growth, the analyst house said. The decline was worse than expected as supply and logistics further deteriorated due to the lockdowns in China and persistent macroeconomic headwinds.

“Fears over a recession continue to mount and weaken demand across segments,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device trackers. “Consumer demand for PCs has weakened in the near term and is at risk of perishing in the long term as consumers become more cautious about their spending and once again grow accustomed to computing across device types such as phones and tablets.”

“Meanwhile, commercial demand has been more robust although it has also declined as businesses delay purchases,” said Ubrani.

Yet despite the recent decline and weakening demand, the total PC volume is still comparable to the beginning of the pandemic when volumes reached 74.3 million in the second quarter of 2020 and the market is still well above pre-pandemic levels as volumes in the second quarter of 2018 and 2019 were 62.1 million and 65.1 million units respectively.

“With education PC appetite saturating and consumer demand stagnating, the US PC market is staring at another quarter of double-digit decline across most segments,” added Neha Mahajan, research manager with IDC’s Devices and Displays team.

“Commercial PC demand is also showing signs of a slowdown, however there are still pockets of growth expected in certain commercial sub-segments where demand for low-mid range Windows devices remains active and unfilled,” said Mahajan.

Player rankings

IDC looked at the player rankings in the PC market, with the rankings among the top 3 companies not changing in the second quarter of 2022.

Lenovo is still the biggest player, with a 24.6 percent market share.

Second is HP at 18.9 percent and third is Dell at 18.5 percent.

Apple however did manage to slip into the fifth position (6.7 percent), tying with ASUS (6.6 percent), as production dipped during the quarter.

As a result, Acer found itself in 4th place with 6.9 percent.

Barring any further supply issues, IDC expects Apple to ramp up its production in the second half of the year.