PC market shipments plummeted by over 100 million units during 2023, culminating in a historic low for the industry.
According to number crunchers at Stocklytics.com, Global PC shipments fell from approximately 342 million units in 2021 to around 242 million units in 2023.
The site’s financial analyst, Edith Read, said that shipment volume in 2022 and 2023 dwindled considerably, mainly due to waning consumer demand for PCs in the wake of a detrimental economic crisis with inflation flaring up.
This trend has raised concerns among manufacturers, suppliers, and analysts, who are now reassessing the future trajectory of the PC market.
Read said that PC sales in 2023 started to decline early, with the first quarter seeing a 29 percent freefall compared to the same timeframe in 2022.
Global shipments slipped to 56.9 million units, reverting to pre-pandemic levels before the industry’s record-setting 342 million shipments in 2021.
“Unfortunately, the sluggish pace set by Q1 2023 sales carried through the year,” Read said.
While the future may be spotty for the PC industry, the IDC projects a remarkable recovery for the PC market in 2024. The PC market achieved 1.5 per cent growth from 2023, with about 59.8 million units sold in the year’s first quarter.
This partial rebound signals the start of an impressive trajectory for the market, given that the quarterly results were astoundingly close to 2019 Q1’s 60.5 million shipments.
IDC predicts a notable 3.4 per cent market improvement in 2024 from 2023, buoyed by growing pressure on consumers and enterprises to adopt the Windows 11 operating system.
Additionally, the proliferation of AI-enabled PC models is anticipated to reinvigorate demand, helping the market recover from the recent slowdown following the pandemic-driven buying frenzy.
