Global PC Shipments Plunge 20% as Prices and Shortages Bite

Worldwide PC shipments dropped 20.1% year on year in the third quarter of 2026, according to IDC, as higher prices, component constraints and excess inventory disrupted the usual back-to-school seasonal uplift.

IDC, which published its figures on 8 October, estimated that 62.7 million PCs shipped during the quarter, down from 78.5 million a year earlier. That was also a 9.1% fall from Q2 2026, when the market recorded 68.2 million shipments.

The decline was far steeper than Q2’s 3.8% year-on-year fall and marked a second consecutive quarterly drop. Normally, PC shipments rise between the second and third quarters, but IDC said vendors and sales channels had bought stock early in 2026 in anticipation of memory-related price rises.

Early buying left the market with too much stock

IDC said that earlier purchasing pulled demand forward from the second half of the year, leaving channels with elevated inventory as high prices suppressed demand. The firm also linked supply pressure to AI data-centre construction, which has increased demand for memory and other components.

“Channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand,” IDC consumer-device research director Jitesh Ubrani said.

Omdia’s separate estimate, published on 9 October, put global desktop, notebook and workstation shipments at 58.1 million units, down 21.2% year on year. While its total differs from IDC’s, both firms point to a market contraction of roughly one fifth.

Omdia said shortages or increased costs had affected DRAM, SSD storage, processors, graphics cards and other integrated-circuit components. It said manufacturers cut production during the quarter while distributors and retailers worked through stock built up earlier in the year.

Memory and storage costs have become a bigger problem

According to Omdia principal analyst Ben Yeh, DRAM and SSDs now account for nearly 40% of PC manufacturing costs, compared with a typical 15%, while prices have risen by more than four times.

Lenovo remained the largest PC supplier in IDC’s figures, shipping 14.9 million units, though that was down 22.6% year on year. HP’s shipments fell 30.9% to 10.3 million units, while Dell dropped 25% to 7.6 million. Apple and ASUS declined by 11.3% and 8.6% respectively.

• Lenovo: 14.9 million shipments, down 22.6%
• HP: 10.3 million shipments, down 30.9%
• Dell: 7.6 million shipments, down 25%
• Apple: 5.9 million shipments, down 11.3%
• ASUS: 5.5 million shipments, down 8.6%

What it means for laptop buyers

There may be isolated deals as retailers and distributors attempt to reduce excess stock. IDC said this could bring promotions and limited short-term relief, but it does not expect prices to return to where they were a year earlier.

That means UK buyers should not assume that weaker shipments will deliver broad price cuts. Models with more memory or storage could face greater pressure, while supply may remain uneven across components and configurations. No UK-specific shipment figures or retail price changes were confirmed in the reports.

Omdia forecasts a further 24% year-on-year shipment decline in Q4 2026, followed by a 7% fall across 2027. Those figures are forecasts rather than reported results, but they point to continued pressure on the PC market.