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Report: Global PC Shipments Return to Growth and Pre-Pandemic Volumes in the First Quarter of 2024

AleksandarK

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After two years of decline, the worldwide traditional PC market returned to growth during the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24) with 59.8 million shipments, growing 1.5% year over year, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Growth was largely achieved due to easy year-over-year comparisons as the market declined 28.7% during the first quarter of 2023, which was the lowest point in PC history. In addition, global PC shipments finally returned to pre-pandemic levels as 1Q24 volumes rivaled those seen in 1Q19 when 60.5 million units were shipped.

With inflation numbers trending down, PC shipments have begun to recover in most regions, leading to growth in the Americas as well as Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). However, the deflationary pressures in China directly impacted the global PC market. As the largest consumer of desktop PCs, weak demand in China led to yet another quarter of declines for global desktop shipments, which already faced pressure from notebooks as the preferred form factor.




"Despite China's struggles, the recovery is expected to continue in 2024 as newer AI PCs hit shelves later this year and as commercial buyers begin refreshing the PCs that were purchased during the pandemic," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Along with growth in shipments, AI PCs are also expected to carry higher price tags, providing further opportunity for PC and component makers."

Among the top 5 companies, Lenovo once again held the top spot and outgrew the market largely due to the steep decline in shipments experienced in 1Q23. Apple's strong growth was also due to an outsized decline in the prior year.

Notes:
IDC declares a statistical tie in the Personal Computing Device market when there is a difference of one tenth of one percent (0.1%) or less in the shipment shares among two or more vendors.

Traditional PCs include Desktops, Notebooks, and Workstations and do not include Tablets or x86 Servers. Detachable Tablets and Slate Tablets are part of the Personal Computing Device Tracker but are not addressed in this press release.

Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the company/brand under which they are sold.

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It's quite strange, HP's products tend to be of such poor quality, yet they still have so much marketshare. Why? lol
 
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It's quite strange, HP's products tend to be of such poor quality, yet they still have so much marketshare. Why? lol
HP is seen as a 'safe' brand by corporate IT departments and volume discounts put any quality concerns to one side.
 
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It's quite strange, HP's products tend to be of such poor quality, yet they still have so much marketshare. Why? lol
Corporate contracts. Can't tell you how many companies/government has HP products. Steady stream of income for them.
 
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@Bwaze Intel claim to have sold 5 million AI PCs to date, mainly in the first quarter of 2024. Mostly Meteor Lake laptops.
 
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@Bwaze Intel claim to have sold 5 million AI PCs to date, mainly in the first quarter of 2024. Mostly Meteor Lake laptops.

Sure, and now every weak GPU, every CPU with integrated graphics is first labeled as "AI", "Neural Accelerator" etc, no matter how weak it's performance in that regard is. We'll find a task simple enough, task that doesn't need such acceleration in the first place, and place AI labels all over it!

Will there aeven be a product that isn't "AI" in a couple of months? Some sledgehammers?

:p

I can't wait for "AI" functions on all the devices that we rely on doing very simple task. AI printer? AI motherboard software and UEFI, if it isn't botched enough already? Etc...
 
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Sure, and now every weak GPU, every CPU with integrated graphics is first labeled as "AI", "Neural Accelerator" etc, no matter how weak it's performance in that regard is. We'll find a task simple enough, task that doesn't need such acceleration in the first place, and place AI labels all over it!

Will there aeven be a product that isn't "AI" in a couple of months? Some sledgehammers?

:p

I can't wait for "AI" functions on all the devices that we rely on doing very simple task. AI printer? AI motherboard software and UEFI, if it isn't botched enough already? Etc...
I'll take an AI money tree.
 
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Will there aeven be a product that isn't "AI" in a couple of months? Some sledgehammers?

:p

I can't wait for "AI" functions on all the devices that we rely on doing very simple task. AI printer? AI motherboard software and UEFI, if it isn't botched enough already? Etc...
Yeah, I too miss the good old times when everything was called just "smart".
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the pandemic actually the reason for the renewed uptake in PC sales?
 
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Yes. Needs for schooling and work online from home, lots of extra spare time to spend at home with gaming or content playback, and even government bonuses, all helped to fuel the large PC sales boost. But of course then followed the down, when everyone went back outside, had less time to play with their gadgets, and had already bought what they meant to.

"AI" generative content creation might be the next boost, but I don't expect home users to jump and buy all the "AI" laptops, PCs, because their "AI" apps are right now downright fraud. But AI server infrastructure might actually show up in the figures.
 
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Corporate contracts. Can't tell you how many companies/government has HP products. Steady stream of income for them.
Obviously HP is doing something right. Like fulfilling their part of support and service agreements.

It's quite strange, HP's products tend to be of such poor quality, yet they still have so much marketshare. Why? lol
Which products specifically? Notebooks? Consumer notebooks? Printers (but those are outside PC statistics)? Or the products that corporations care about?
 
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Obviously HP is doing something right. Like fulfilling their part of support and service agreements.


Which products specifically? Notebooks? Consumer notebooks? Printers (but those are outside PC statistics)? Or the products that corporations care about?
I'd say that on the scale of the worst, printers and notebooks aimed at the average consumer are at the top. All the products I've had the displeasure of touching from HP seem to have been made to fail or designed by monkeys.
 
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