A new analytical report reveals that the downward spiral for Global PC shipments continued during the third quarter of 2023 (3Q23) as global volumes declined 7.6% year over year with 68.2 million PCs shipped.

PC inventory has also become leaner in the past few months and is near healthy levels in most channels. However, downward pressure on pricing persists and will likely remain an issue within the consumer and business sectors.

While most of the top 5 vendors experienced double-digit declines during the quarter, Apple's outsized decline was the big standout, down 23.1% as presented in the chart below. Canalys also reported on this today but showed Apple at -29.1%.

(Click on Chart to Enlarge)

"The slowness in the industry is giving the supply chain an opportunity to explore procurement and production options outside China and this will likely remain a key issue going forward, second only to the advancement of AI within PCs."

"Generative AI could be a watershed moment for the PC industry," said Linn Huang, research vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC. "While use cases have yet to be fully articulated, interest in the category is already strong. AI PCs promise organizations the ability to personalize the user experience at a deeper level all while being able to preserve data privacy and sovereignty. As more of these devices launch next year, we expect a significant boost to overall selling prices."

In Q3 2023, U.S. PC shipments weren't much better according to Gartner, with Apple once again having the deepest decline amongst the top 6 PC vendors, with a decline of -25.8%. For more on this, read the full Gartner report. In Q2, Apple's U.S. shipments enjoyed a massive 32.6% uptick.