Sunday, April 9th 2023
PC Pain Persists in Q1 2023 Due to Excess Inventory and Poor Demand, According to IDC Tracker
Weak demand, excess inventory, and a worsening macroeconomic climate were all contributing factors for the precipitous drop in shipments of traditional PCs during the first quarter of 2023 (1Q23). Global shipments numbered 56.9 million, marking a contraction of 29.0% compared to the same quarter in 2022, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.
The preliminary results also represented a coda to the era of COVID-driven demand and at least a temporary return to pre-COVID patterns. Shipment volume in 1Q23 was noticeably lower than the 59.2 million units shipped in 1Q19 and 60.6 million in 1Q18. "Though channel inventory has depleted in the last few months, it's still well above the healthy four to six week range," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "Even with heavy discounting, channels and PC makers can expect elevated inventory to persist into the middle of the year and potentially into the third quarter."
The pause in growth and demand is also giving the supply chain some room to make changes as many factories begin to explore production options outside China. Meanwhile, PC makers are also rejigging their plans for the remainder of the year and have begun to pull in orders for Chromebooks due to an expected increase in licensing costs later this year. That said, PC shipments will likely suffer in the near term with a return to growth towards the end of the year with an expected improvement in the global economy and as the installed base begins to think about upgrading to Windows 11.
"By 2024, an aging installed base will start coming up for refresh," said Linn Huang, research vice president, Devices and Displays at IDC. "If the economy is trending upwards by then, we expect significant market upside as consumers look to refresh, schools seek to replace worn down Chromebooks, and businesses move to Windows 11. If recession in key markets drags on into next year, recovery could be a slog."
Notes:
The preliminary results also represented a coda to the era of COVID-driven demand and at least a temporary return to pre-COVID patterns. Shipment volume in 1Q23 was noticeably lower than the 59.2 million units shipped in 1Q19 and 60.6 million in 1Q18. "Though channel inventory has depleted in the last few months, it's still well above the healthy four to six week range," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "Even with heavy discounting, channels and PC makers can expect elevated inventory to persist into the middle of the year and potentially into the third quarter."
"By 2024, an aging installed base will start coming up for refresh," said Linn Huang, research vice president, Devices and Displays at IDC. "If the economy is trending upwards by then, we expect significant market upside as consumers look to refresh, schools seek to replace worn down Chromebooks, and businesses move to Windows 11. If recession in key markets drags on into next year, recovery could be a slog."
Notes:
- Some IDC estimates prior to financial earnings reports. Data for all companies are reported for calendar periods.
- Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the company/brand under which they are sold.
- 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.
47 Comments on PC Pain Persists in Q1 2023 Due to Excess Inventory and Poor Demand, According to IDC Tracker
At least on the CPU side we can find good products between 150 and 250€. Sadly MBs also got an 50% price bump at least. 16 GB ram is enough for now, but sooner or later 32 GB will be a must. I'm skipping the first gen DDR5 platforms, will look around when both 8000 series AMD and 14th gen Intel CPUs will be widely available in the midrange, for now the 5600 is enough for me. Maybe DDR5 will also got cheaper by then.
But in the CPU market duopoly works, because consumers don't avoid one brand's products, making the other brand feel confident to start increasing prices.
I know the answer, they burned a lot of customers. And i don't mean in the far far away 2007, i mean very very recently, like a ongoing thing. Because on the other hand they burned a lot of people with the bulldozers and people love Ryzen, everybody forgot, nobody cares, because it works without issues.
Unless there is some conspiracy theory i'm unaware of.
Ryzen didn't work without issues in the beginning as you are saying. You chose to remember your RDNA 1 problems and you chose to forget Ryzen 1000 and 300 series chipsets problems. It's a matter of choice and tech press and even other consumers can influence when someone forgets and when someone remembers.
a bit of a f you to have know issues, acknowledge them without fixing them, for years.
It's all about choice. We choose to ignore some stuff, or make them the most important things in the world.
Memory and motherboards cost a difference of about $100-$200 total from memory and motherboards back when the 2600 was released. For most that difference alone after four years is not the problem and is more than worth the performance jump. Its that extra $100-$200 combined with more expensive GPUs that have made building a new computer almost $1000 more expensive today. Sure you get a big GPU performance jump as well but the average person’s buying power drops off as you approach that extra $1000.
Edit: Looking back at GPUs in the 2600k era, you could get a 2070 for $500. The 4070 is estimated to be double the performance for $100 more. So building a midrange computer with a 7700 and 4070 GPU is only going to cost up to $300 more than a 2018 computer build. Thats not too bad given 2.5x the CPU performance and 2.0x the GPU performance.
Edit2: OMG, from that same review, going from a 2600k to a 7700 doubles your frames at all resolutions except 4k where its only 75% higher! Of course this is under conditions where the GPU isn’t the bottleneck but still. That’s a big jump in gaming performance from just the CPU.
Edit3: looks like I confused the original posters 2600k with a 2600x. So nevermind. That person isn’t being serious. Above comparison was for Zen+ (2600X) to Zen 4 (7700).
For someone that wants to play a game or play Excel, IPC doesn't really matter, as long as it does what you want (stable frame rate, enough frame rate/performance for your use case) at the right price and it works, no bugs, no problems. It's just an arbitrary metric.
Intel remained relevant in the CPU space even with a huge manufacturing deficit(14+++++++,10++>>>let's call it 7), because of that single thread performance. The reason why their CPUs hit 300W, to market higher IPC, higher performance in games. Yet when talking about CPUs you seem to ignore the impact of the CPU in getting the maximum framerate in games, or in Excel where Intel CPUs where ALWAYS faster, while you give no excuses to AMD's GPUs. Double standards?
AM5 was overpriced, a bad product overall, and sales showed it was a big mistake. A mistake they are doing all they can to remedy, cheaper boards, the new x3d. Not sure how they are doing now. If AMD think they can pull a Intel of the 00's they are dead wrong.
Most people couldn't care less about IPC, nodes, or even watts (unless it's absurd), all it matters is price vs performance. That's it.
The thing is that for typical usage, even a Core2Quad or a 6 core Thuban can be a very nice system today, offering smooth experience, with one condition. SSD, only SSD.Facts? AM3 became AM3+ and you couldn't insert a Bulldozer on an AM3 (non plus) motherboard. Bulldozer also stopped seeing upgrades on the AM3+. Excavator and Steamroller never being used on AM3+, only FM2+.
Please. Throw me stuff about Intel. I do lack knowledge about Intel platforms. But spare me the inaccuracies about AMD platforms. And in any case AM3+ lasted as long as it lasted, because until AM4, AMD was with one foot on bankruptcy. AMD had nothing to replace it.
Case in point the Macintosh XL released in 1985 cost $4000. I’m sure some still turn on and do stuff. But $4000 in 1985 for such a machine makes all tech today look extremely cheap.
To answer your question AM3 was announced in February 9, 2009 and the first Bulldozer came out in October 12, 2011. So AM3 saw support for 2,5 years, considering Bulldozer couldn't be put on AM3 boards, with some rare exceptions that could get a BIOS update and offer some support for the first Bulldozer generation. AM3+ came out in mid 2011 and the Piledriver based Bulldozer came out in mid 2012. After that, NOTHING. So just ONE extra generation for the AM3+. FM2+ was luckier seeing also Steamroller in the form of Kaveri.
AM3+ motherboards come with their socket painted in black. AM3 (non plus) come with their socket in the typical white color.
Main reason for the switch was the IPC since I did and still do play games that rely heavier on single thread/IPC performance than core count and at the time AMD had nothing competent to offer in my budget range so I just sold my entire old zen platform and switched back to Intel. 'my mobo had no 5000 serie support at the time and the 5600x was way too expensive here in the first place'
For example Lost Ark's minimum frames nearly doubled with the 12100F compared to my 1600x and it smoothened the entire game out. 'this with the same GPU still cause that was upgraded later'
I did have some issues with my 1600x system mainly random blue screen of deaths if I tried to run XMP at 3200 MHz instead of 3000 so I did that.
But that was like a difference I couldn't notice anywhere anyway.
Sure if I had a crystal ball to see that we will get a cheaper non x 5600 and a proper bios update for my mobo then things might be different but honestly I don't regret my decision.
Its been working issue free for 1+ year now and is playing everything I play well while drawing less power too.
Would you still feel bad for them?It's AMD's fault because they HAVE. REPEATEDLY. DROPPED. THE. BALL.
rDNA downclocking, GCN black screens, single GPU stuttering, the list goes on. AMD's support is horrific compared to nvidia, and when you do that for years you gain a reputation. AMD only recently unf*%&$d their drivers in 2018, and finally achieved parity with nvidia in the 2020s. This is a brand that has been making GPUs since 2005. A brand that has committed to charging more for their products because they are a "preeemium" brand.
Well, guess what? AMD isnt your friend. If they want to charge premium prices, they must provide a premium product. If they dont, they will fail. They must either compete, or die. They chose to treat their customers like cattle, they can reap the loyalty that comes from that. They intentionally restricted RX 6000 series supply to keep prices up. the EXACT same thing nvidia does. Yet only nvidia gets flame for that. Interesting eh?
To add to the pile, they got drug through the media AGAIN. Why? Because when rDNA3 came out they stopped updating rDNA2. For 3 months. And people like you immediately began excusing the behavior of a company with a $5 billion R+D budget.
People are not going to pay a premium price for a second rate brand.
How about a video. Let's enjoy AMD's inferior graphics
About the Lisa Su comment, it is very low quality and I will avoid dropping to that level. If I wanted to reply to that kind of comment, wccftech and videocardz are better places for this kind of "quality" talk.Are you kapone32?
PS Seriously, what Hardware Unboxed is showing in that video, should be investigated for both Nvidia and AMD 8GB cards. @W1zzard
Maybe ultra settings is not always ultra settings.