- Gartner has shared its analysis of PC shipments that took place in 2023.
- While the fourth quarter saw a small amount of growth, there was actually a decline in PC shipments over 2023 as a whole.
- Lenovo retains its top spot in the market with shipments of its machines accounting for over a quarter of the market.
Following a relative boom in demand for technology when COVID-19 forced many companies to go remote, the PC market continues to struggle to ship as many units as it did before and during the pandemic. This week, Gartner published analysis that despite a 0.3 percent increase in the number of PC shipments during the fourth quarter of 2023, PC shipments were down 14.8 percent for the year.
“The PC market has hit the bottom of its decline after significant adjustment,” explains director analyst at Gartner, Mikako Kitagawa. “Inventory was normalized in the fourth quarter of 2023, which had been an issue plaguing the industry for two years. This subtle growth suggests that demand and supply are finally balanced. However, this situation will likely change due to the anticipated component price hike 2024, as well as geopolitical and economic uncertainties.”
However, Gartner reports that the Europe, Middle East and Africa market saw the highest growth for the year. In the regions, PC shipments grew 8.7 percent, the first year-on-year increase since 2021.
While this is encouraging, it’s not evident whether this is indicative of sustained growth or a temporary blip that could be erased should demand dip.
Drilling down into the how manufacturers performed, Lenovo shipped 16.2 million unites representing 25.6 percent of the total market. While there was little movement in the rankings, Dell and ASUS both noted a decline in shipments.
| Company | 4Q23 Shipments (thousands of units) | 4Q23 Market Share (%) | 4Q22 Shipments | 4Q22 Market Share (%) | 4Q23-4Q22 Growth (%) |
| Lenovo | 16,213 | 25.6 | 15,713 | 24.9 | 3.2 |
| HP Inc. | 13,954 | 22.0 | 13,220 | 20.9 | 5.6 |
| Dell | 9,983 | 15.8 | 10,884 | 17.2 | -8.3 |
| Apple | 6,349 | 10.0 | 5,925 | 9.4 | 7.2 |
| ASUS | 4,405 | 7.0 | 4,864 | 7.7 | -9.4 |
| Acer | 3,987 | 6.3 | 3,589 | 5.7 | 11.1 |
| Others | 8,479 | 13.4 | 8,982 | 14.2 | -5.6 |
| Total | 63,371 | 100.0 | 63,179 | 100.0 | 0.3 |
Source: Gartner
“The PC market underwent a significant adjustment period in the past two years after an extraordinary growth period between 2020 and 2021,” notes Kitagawa.
Something that could drive an increase in the number of PC shipments is the approaching end-of-life of Windows 10.
That may only be happening in October 2025, but given that transitioning to a new operating system takes time, and Windows 11 demands a hardware upgrade for many users, we may start to see growth in the PC market this year and next.
