Global personal computer shipments fell 4.9% during the second quarter, marking the first market contraction following 9 consecutive quarters of steady expansion. According to a market tracking report published by the International Data Corporation, total shipments dropped to 68.2 million units. The primary driver behind this reversal was a severe and persistent shortage of memory chips, which forced major manufacturing brands to pull their inventory orders forward as much as possible earlier in the year.
Beyond the constraints in the memory supply chain, the personal computer market struggled with component shortages in storage and ongoing geopolitical disruptions. Jitesh Ubrani, a research director at the International Data Corporation, pointed out that the financial reality of the market currently differs from shipment volume. He noted that while unit shipments are declining, total revenue is actually increasing because hardware brands are implementing price hikes faster than the consumer demand is falling. This trend suggests that growth rates will drop significantly during the remaining months of the year, with supply chain challenges projected to persist until early 2028.
The research highlights 2 distinct shifts occurring within the hardware landscape. First, the escalating costs associated with memory procurement risk slowing down the widespread hardware upgrade cycle, even as corporate interest in on device artificial intelligence processing climbs due to rising cloud computing expenses. Second, the environment is accelerating market consolidation. Industry giants are leveraging their massive purchasing power across adjacent business sectors, such as smartphones and enterprise servers, to monopolize the limited memory supply, effectively squeezing out smaller competitors.
Jean Philippe Bouchard, a vice president at the International Data Corporation, explained that supply chain dominance has become the deciding factor in market share acquisition during this downturn. The top 5 hardware manufacturers controlled the vast majority of the volume. Lenovo maintained the leading position, securing 24.4% of the global market with 16.6 million shipments, despite a minor volume decline of 2.1% compared to the 17.0 million units shipped in the same period last year.
HP Inc followed in second place, capturing 19.1% of the market with 13.0 million shipments, representing a 9.0% drop from the 14.3 million units shipped previously. Dell Technologies claimed third place with 9.3 million units and a 13.6% market share, reflecting a 5.0% decline from their prior 9.8 million unit volume. ASUS secured the fifth position, holding a 7.4% market share with 5.0 million shipments, representing a flat growth rate of 0.2%.
Apple was the only major manufacturer in the top tier to post double digit growth, surging 10.1% to reach 6.7 million shipments. This volume gave Apple a 9.9% market share, an increase from the 8.5% share held last year. This growth aligned with the launch of the new MacBook Neo laptop, proving that the company remains well positioned despite widespread industry cost pressures. Smaller hardware brands, grouped together as other competitors, accounted for the remaining 17.5 million shipments, suffering a collective loss of 10.5% in volume.
