With a total of 68 million units, worldwide PC shipments decreased by 19.5% in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year. It is the steepest decline in more than two decades and the fourth consecutive quarter of decline.
Clarifying that the data are preliminary results, this was revealed by Gartner, whose analyst director, Mikako Kitagawa, said that this quarter's results could mark a historic slowdown for the PC market.

Do not buy because you have bought

“Despite massive promotions and price drops, back-to-school sales ended with disappointing results due to a lack of need, as many consumers had purchased new PCs in the past two years,” Kitakawa noted, adding that on the business side, geopolitical and economic uncertainties led to more selective IT spending and PCs were not among the priorities.

United States and inflation

In the United States, the PC market fell 17.3%, the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment declines. Slowing laptop sales caused the overall market to decline, but desktop computers showed modest growth driven by pent-up demand among businesses and public sector purchases. According to Kitakawa, inflation is the biggest concern in the US market, but smaller companies are relatively optimistic about macroeconomic conditions.

Fewer consumers and a lot of inventory

The EMEA PC market declined 26.4% year-over-year in the third quarter, reaching 17 million units, the steepest decline among all regions. It is the third negative quarter for the market in this region after a boom at the beginning of the pandemic.
“Multiple factors led to a significant deterioration in the EMEA PC market, including challenging macroeconomic conditions, declining consumer and business demand, and high inventory levels,” the Gartner analyst said. “In addition, many PC vendors closed their operations in Russia in the first two quarters of this year, which negatively affected overall shipments.”
Excluding Japan, the Asia Pacific market declined 16.6% year-on-year, largely due to slowing shipments in China.

The situation in China

In the third quarter of 2021, China had almost completely resumed normal life and economic activity, but this year's lockdowns in different cities slowed business operations and led to a decline in PC demand in government, enterprise and consumer markets.