Worldwide PC Shipments Declined 22.4% in Third Quarter of 2026 As Component Cost Inflation Raised ASPs: Gartner
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 55.4 million
units in the third quarter of 2026, down 22.4% from the third quarter of 2025,
according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology
insights company.
“The impact of higher memory and storage
costs is now fully reflected in PC pricing. DRAM costs surged five times
year-over-year in the second quarter, and PC vendors passed those higher
component costs on to customers, driving the steep decline in PC shipments
during the third quarter,“
said Namrata Banerjee, Principal, Research at Gartner.
“PC shipments have fallen to levels last seen
in early 2023, though the market dynamics were noticeably different,” said
Banerjee. “Rather than excess inventory, the decline in the third quarter of
2026 was driven by higher prices, vendor-led reprioritization of scarce components and a shift toward
higher-priced configurations. The resulting reduction in the availability of
lower-cost devices made replacement purchases less affordable for consumers,
while businesses focused spending on targeted investments, such as workstations
and AI PCs rather than broad-based PC deployments.”
All of the top six worldwide
PC vendors experienced shipment declines in the third quarter of 2026. Lenovo remained the
market leader, with shipments falling 22.4% year-over-year in line with the
market. Its supply chain scale and broader AI and infrastructure
portfolio helped preserve its competitive position. HP Inc. recorded the
steepest decline with shipments down 30.9% but maintained its No. 2 position.
Its relatively high exposure to price-sensitive consumer and mainstream
commercial segments contributed to the decline. Apple recorded the lowest
shipment decline of the top six vendors and gained 1.7 percentage points of
market share, supported by its portfolio of mainstream MacBooks.
Leave A Comment