PC market continues to slide, Apple sells 40 percent less

Demand for notebooks and desktop PCs fell by 29 percent year-on-year. Manufacturers hope for the Windows 10 end.

Market research firm IDC estimates that only 56.9 million PCs were sold worldwide in the first quarter of 2023. That was 23.3 million or 29 percent fewer than in the first quarter of 2022. According to IDC, the number of units was also significantly lower than in the period before the corona pandemic: In Q1/2019 it was 59.2 million, in Q1/2018 even more 60.6 million.

IDC does not expect an increase in demand in the short term. Sales figures could only pick up again from 2024 because Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 in autumn 2025 and older computers cannot be switched to Windows 11.

Only losers

According to IDC, the five companies Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, and Asus sell almost three-quarters of all desktop PCs and notebooks worldwide. All were able to sell significantly fewer devices than in the previous year, with HP coming off best with a drop of 24 percent. The biggest drop in demand hit Apple, with 40 percent fewer MacBooks, Mac Minis, and iMacs sold. Apple’s market share shrank from 8.6 to 7.2 percent.

Lenovo remains the market leader with a 22.4 percent market share (12.7 million computers), closely followed by HP (21.2 percent/12 million). Then follow Dell (16.7%/9.5 million), Apple, and Asus.

Gartner had already reported the biggest slump in the PC market ever recorded for the fourth quarter of 2022. Business is therefore also bad for the suppliers. Except for the CPU manufacturers AMD and Intel, especially for companies like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, which produce DRAM and flash memory chips, as well as for the SSD and hard disk suppliers Seagate, and WD. Smartphones are also selling badly. For servers, too, it looks like zero growth at best.