According to a new IDC report, global shipments for traditional PCs fell below expectations in the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22) as 67.2 million PCs were shipped, down 28.1% from the prior year. The 4Q22 shipments are comparable to the fourth quarter of 2018, when the market was constrained by Intel's supply challenges. It is clear the pandemic boom is over for the PC market, but despite recent declines, annual shipments for 2022 were well above pre-pandemic levels at 292.3 million units for the full year. However, demand remains a concern as most users have relatively new PCs and the global economy worsens.

As gloomy IDC's report is, it should be noted that Lenovo, HP, Dell and Asus all had negative growth in double digits ranging from -20.9% for Asus and -37.2% for Dell. Apple amazingly escaped the carnage by only falling by -2.1% for a solid fourth place finish.

Considering that Apple didn't even release any new Macs during Q4, Apple held up extremely well. In fact, IDC's second chart covering Annual PC shipments for 2022, Apple was the only PC maker to have ended in positive territory at +2.5%.  

(Click on chart below to Enlarge)
(Click on chart above to Enlarge)

The IDC report further noted that supply side activity shows many large vendors entered 2023 with a cautious outlook, but the consensus is that portions of the PC market could return to growth in late 2023 with the overall market following in 2024.

Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers: "Consecutive quarters of declines clearly paint a gloomy picture of the PC market, but this is really all about perception. 2021 was near historic levels for PC shipments," due to COVID-19 pushing students and the workforce to work from home, pushing PC home sales. In that light, stat comparisons to previous years will be distorted.

IDC firmly believes that the PC market has the potential to recover in 2024 and they also see pockets of opportunity throughout the remainder of 2023.