Looking at fourth-quarter global PC sales data from Canalys, IDC, and Gartner, the news isn’t good, with all three companies showing a steep decline from their 2021 highs.
In fact, the numbers plummeted for the fourth straight quarter, with sales down 28% according to IDC, 28.5% according to Gartner, and 29% according to Canalys. These numbers include laptop and desktop computers running Windows, MacOS, or Chrome operating systems.
The total for the year is down around -16% year-over-year for all three companies, telling a similar story. But IDC analyst Ryan Reith pointed out that 2021 was a great year, so it may not be as pessimistic as the numbers suggest.
“Comparisons will be skewed in 2021 as PC shipments were close to historical levels. awaits,” Reith said in a statement.
Gartner reported 65.3 million units shipped in the fourth quarter, Canalys 65.4 million units, and IDC 67.2 million units.
There were no real winners in Q4 and no manufacturer in positive territory. The best possible losses were minimal, with all three reporting his double-digit losses across the board for the most part.
Apple had the lowest losses in all three reports, with Gartner reporting -10.1%, Canalys reporting growth of -7.5% compared to last year, and IDC a more modest -2.1%. The news only got worse from there.
Among the top three PC makers, Dell had the biggest losses in all three reports, with all three reporting losses of around 37%. This is followed by HP at -29% and Lenovo at -28%. Regardless of the reason, these are big reductions.
The fourth quarter numbers are particularly troubling. Holidays usually represent periods of increased sales, and manufacturers have made great efforts to increase sales with price cuts, but to no avail. Gartner reported it was the biggest quarterly decline since it began tracking these numbers in the mid-1990s.
What does this mean for next year? In general, despite the uncertain economic outlook, analysts remain cautiously optimistic and expect an uptick later in the year, or by early 2024 at the latest.
“As businesses and consumers weather the storm, we expect purchase delays to start boosting the market in the second half of 2023 and pick up momentum in 2024,” Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt said in a statement.
This is in line with IDC’s thinking, which predicts a rebound in 2024 and some pockets of recovery next year, but Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa predicts that early 2024 We anticipate that the downturn may continue.
The market has taken a hit this year, but it’s important to put these numbers in context. The outlook is somewhat positive, despite a sharp decline in the year-on-year percentage compared to pre-lockdown figures in 2020.
