PC Shipments Fall to Three-Year Levels as Consumers Delay Upgrades... Down 20% in Q3

Third-quarter shipments totaled 57 million units, down 21% year over year
Rising memory chip prices are driving widespread price hikes
Intel, AMD and other CPU makers are raising prices, too
Shipments expected to fall more than 20% year over year in the fourth quarter

Global PC shipments are declining amid rising prices for key components, including memory chips, and analysts now expect the market to struggle to recover through next year.

According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, global PC shipments totaled 57 million units in the third quarter of this year, down 21% from the same period last year. Shipments also fell 13.8% from the previous quarter, the second quarter of this year. Another market research firm, Gartner, reported that PC shipments had returned to levels last seen three years ago. Gartner estimated that shipments totaled 55.4 million units in the third quarter, similar to the first quarter of 2023, down 22.4% year over year.

Rising component prices have pushed up prices of finished products, affecting consumers' demand to replace their PCs. Prices for PCs and laptops released this year by major manufacturers have risen substantially from last year. Manufacturers that had been using their existing inventories to absorb higher costs have begun passing memory chip price increases on to consumers through the prices of new products.

Unlike the business market, where companies are replacing older PCs that cannot run the latest operating system, Windows 11, demand from general consumers has weakened notably. "The PC market is under considerable pressure as prices rise and consumers put off upgrading to new products," said Kang Min-soo, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research. "While corporate replacement cycles and Windows migration are providing some support, they are not enough to offset weakening demand."

Lenovo, the global market leader, shipped 15 million units in the third quarter, down 23% year over year. Apple's shipments also fell 11% to 5.6 million units, while ASUS shipped 5.2 million units, a decline of 7%.

Experts expect the decline in PC shipments to continue for the time being, as prices are rising not only for memory but also for key system semiconductors such as central processing units (CPUs). Major CPU makers, including Intel, AMD and Qualcomm, have raised prices or been discussing price increases since last month. Counterpoint Research forecasts that global PC shipments will fall 27% year over year in the fourth quarter of this year, with full-year shipments next year remaining at about the same level as this year. Omdia also expects PC shipments to decline 24% in the fourth quarter.

The PC industry is responding to weakening demand by promoting new mid- and low-priced models instead of high-performance flagship products, which have seen larger price increases. Last month, Samsung and LG Electronics simultaneously unveiled new value-focused laptops: the "New Galaxy Book6" and the "LG gram Book AI 2026" (14-inch). The models, equipped with Intel's latest CPUs, are priced in the low-to-mid 1 million won range.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.