HP shipped 31% fewer PCs. The AI data centre boom quadrupled memory prices.
Global PC shipments fell 20.1% year on year to 62.7 million in the third quarter, according to figures from research firm IDC reported by The Register on 9 October.
Omdia counted a 21.2% fall to 58.1 million. By IDC's figures HP shipped 10.3 million (down 31%), Lenovo 14.9 million (down 22.6%), Dell Technologies 7.6 million (down 25%) and Apple 5.9 million (down 11%).
DRAM and SSDs now account for about 40% of a PC's component cost, up from 15%, after their prices rose fourfold as AI companies competed for supply, The Register reported. It also reported shortages of processors and graphics cards.
IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani said: "Vendors and channels loaded up on inventory early in the year to get ahead of price hikes, and that has thrown off the usual seasonality." Omdia expects a further 24% year-on-year fall in the fourth quarter and 7% in 2027.
The figures do not show how much of that has reached enterprise laptop quotes yet. If it does, a fixed refresh budget buys fewer machines.
Is your 2027 laptop refresh going ahead at last year's budget, or shrinking to fit it?
Image: AI-generated.
Sources
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