The second quarter of 2022 brought disruption to the PC market, as the COVID lockdowns in China shut down manufacturing.
The latest data from specialist consultancies shows shipments of desktop and laptop computers fell 15.0% annually to 70.2 million units, the lowest level since a similar disruption occurred in the first quarter of 2020.
On the other hand, laptop shipments fell 18.6% in the second quarter of 2022 to 54.5 million units, a decline for the third consecutive quarter as education acquisition remained subdued compared to the same quarter. from the previous year. Meanwhile, desktop computers grew modestly 0.6% on sales of 15.6 million units, as strong business demand amid further opening of economies helped spur investment in upgrades. and desktop computer upgrades. The premium business segment will continue to be a bright spot for the overall PC market this year, despite growing challenges in the global macroeconomic outlook.
Lenovo remained in first place in the global PC market, although its shipments fell 12% to 17.5 million units in the second quarter of 2022, while Hewlett Packard suffered the largest drop of the top five vendors, hurt by a poor comparison to its strong education shipments last year. On the other hand, HP’s total shipments fell 28% to 13.5 million units. Dell was close to HP in third place, posting a relatively modest 5% decline to 13.2 million units, increasing its market share by two percentage points from a year earlier. To complete the picture of the top five, Acer and Asus suffered declines of 19% and 5% respectively.
International analysts of the IT market consider that growth and inflation is another factor influencing consumers, and price increases in a basket of goods and services are relegating spending on computers and other hardware behind more basic necessities. While the importance of having a high-quality device hasn’t diminished, most PC owners with basic computing needs will decide to get through this period of economic uncertainty and only look to upgrade when the pressure on their budgets eases.
Businesses also face the threats of inflation and rising interest rates, but investment in PCs and IT in general remains vital for digital transformation as part of the post-COVID recovery. On the other hand, those vendors with strong business reputations, deep channel partnerships, and portfolios geared toward business use cases will be best placed to reduce the challenges facing the PC industry this year.
