Gartner reveals that worldwide PC shipments declined in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 65.3 million units, a 28.5 per cent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2021.
This is the largest quarterly shipment decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s. For the full year, PC shipments reached 286.2 million units in 2022, a 16.2 per cent decrease from 2021.
At the same time, higher PC inventory levels started building during the first half of 2022 and have become a bottleneck for the PC market. Low PC supply caused by high demand and supply chain disruptions through 2021 turned into too much supply once demand quickly and significantly slowed.
Mikako Kitagawa, director analyst at Gartner, cited increased inflation and the economic slowdown in general as reasons for this decrease.
“The anticipation of a global recession, increased inflation and higher interest rates have had a major impact on PC demand,” said Kitagawa. “Since many consumers already have relatively new PCs that were purchased during the pandemic, a lack of affordability is superseding any motivation to buy, causing consumer PC demand to drop to its lowest level in years.”
The top three vendors in the worldwide PC market remained unchanged in the fourth quarter of last year. Lenovo maintained its number one spot in shipments. However, it experienced its steepest decline since Gartner started tracking the PC market. Its shipments fell in all regions except in Japan, declining over 30 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America.
HP and Dell also experienced historically steep declines. HP shipments decreased 44 per cent year-over-year and Dell saw a weak demand in the large business market, which impacted shipments in the second half of 2022.
“The PC industry experienced very unusual ups and downs over the past 11 years. After the extraordinary growth period between 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, the market has clearly begun a downward trend which will continue until the beginning of 2024,” said Kitagawa.
