Worldwide shipments of PCs fall by more than 15% in Q2 2022

The latest figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC) show that global shipments of traditional PCs dropped by 15.3% year over year, to only 71.3 million units in the second quarter of 2022.

The preliminary results from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker show this is the second consecutive quarter of lower shipments following two years of growth. The decline was worse than expected as supply and logistics further deteriorated due to the lockdowns in China and persistent macroeconomic headwinds.

IDC mobile device trackers research manager Jitesh Ubrani says fears over a recession continue to mount and weaken demand across segments.

"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," he says.

"Meanwhile, commercial demand has been more robust although it has also declined as businesses delay purchases."

However, despite the recent decline and weakening demand, the IDC says the total PC volume is still comparable to the beginning of the pandemic when it reached 74.3 million in the second quarter of 2020. In addition, 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.

IDC's devices and displays team research manager Neha Mahajan says that the US PC market is looking at another quarter of double-digit decline across most segments, with education PC appetite saturating and consumer demand slowing down.

"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," she says.

IDC says while rankings among the top three companies with the most units shipped did not change, Apple did slip into the fifth position, tying the company with ASUS, as production dipped during the quarter. As a result, Acer found itself in 4th place this cycle. IDC expects Apple to ramp up its production in the second half of the year, barring any further supply issues.

The rankings for global shipments in the second quarter of 2022:

1. Lenovo, 17.5 million units
2. HP Inc., 13.5 million units
3. Dell Technologies, 13.2 million units
4. Acer Group, 5 million units
5. Apple tied with ASUS, 4.8 and 4.7 million units, respectively.

IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide Traditional PC market when there is a difference of one-tenth of 1% (0.1%) or less in the shipment shares among two or more vendors.