PC SHIPMENTS FALL AROUND 20% YEAR-ON-YEAR IN THIRD QUARTER

Global PC shipments fell by around 20% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2026, according to separate analyses from IDC and Omdia. IDC put shipments at 62.7 million units, down 20.1% from 78.5 million a year earlier, which it said was the steepest third-quarter decline it has ever recorded. Omdia reported a 21.2% drop to 58.1 million devices, with desktop shipments down 23.5% to 11.7 million units and laptop shipments down 20.6% to 46.4 million. IDC also recorded a 9.1% fall compared with the second quarter of 2026, when 68.2 million units shipped, which it said was notable because third-quarter shipments usually exceed those of the second quarter.

Both analysts linked the decline to rising prices for memory and storage components. Omdia research director Ishan Dutt said the effect of higher component costs had now fully fed through into retail PC prices, with DRAM and SSDs rising from roughly 15% to 40% of a PC's total cost. Omdia said it expects global DRAM revenue to reach $372 billion this year, up from $151 billion last year, which it attributed to demand driven by AI data centres. IDC said many PC vendors and sales channels had stocked up on units earlier in the year in anticipation of further memory price increases, leaving them with high inventory as demand weakened in the third quarter.

IDC said that excess inventory could prompt some vendors to offer promotions, giving consumers short-term relief on pricing. IDC consumer devices research director Jitesh Ubrani said prices would remain elevated compared with a year ago and that the outlook for coming quarters could worsen before improving, citing broader economic conditions. Ubrani noted that larger year-on-year declines have occurred in other quarters, including falls of 28.2% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and 28.7% in the first quarter of 2023, both following unusually high shipment levels during the pandemic. Neither analyst has forecast a return to prices seen before the recent rise in component costs.