After the extraordinary growth period between 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, the personal computer market has clearly begun a downward trend which will continue until the beginning of 2024, according to technological research and consulting firm, Gartner.
The drop represents the largest quarterly decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s. For the year, PC shipments reached 286.2 million units in 2022, a 16.2 percent decrease from 2021.
“The anticipation of a global recession, increased inflation and higher interest rates have had a major impact on PC demand,” said Mikako Kitagawa, Director Analyst at Gartner.
“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,” Kitagawa said.
The enterprise PC market is also being impacted by a slowing economy, added Kitagawa, noting that PC demand among enterprises began declining in the third quarter of 2022, but the market has now shifted from softness to deterioration. Enterprise buyers are extending PC lifecycles and delaying purchases, meaning the business market will likely not return to growth until 2024.
Simultaneously, higher PC inventory levels started building in 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 quickly turned into an excess of supply once demand quickly and significantly slowed.
The top three vendors in the worldwide PC market remained unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2022, with Lenovo maintaining the No. 1 spot in shipments, followed by Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
The Europe, the Middle East and North Africa PC market had a historical decline of 37.2 percent year over year, due to the intersection of political unrest, inflation, interest rate increases and recessionary pressures.
