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PC shipments fall 20.1 percent in “sharpest decline” since Q1 2023
Ars Technica • • business
Key Points:
- PC shipments experienced a sharp decline of about 20 percent year over year in Q3 2026, marking the steepest drop since Q1 2023, with global shipments falling to around 58-63 million units according to Omdia and IDC.
- Desktop shipments fell 23.5 percent to 11.7 million units, while laptop shipments dropped 20.6 percent to 46.4 million units, reflecting broad weakness across PC categories.
- The decline is attributed to high prices driven by increased memory and component costs, with vendors and sales channels holding excess inventory from earlier in the year, suppressing current demand.
- Analysts warn that PC prices will remain elevated due to ongoing supply constraints and rising costs for memory, storage, processors, and graphics cards, with further shipment declines expected into 2027.
- Component shortages, particularly for memory and server DRAM driven by AI workloads, may persist through 2028, complicating supply chain management and potentially prolonging the PC market downturn.
