PC sales slump to pre-pandemic level in Q4. 'Boom' is over, says IDC Global PC shipments – desktops, notebooks and workstations – saw out 2022 with something of a whimper as sales volumes crashed to levels last seen before the pandemic. According to IDC, 67.2 million traditional computers were shipped in calendar Q4, down 28.1 percent on the prior year, on a par with the number of boxes sold to …
When the pandemic hit, there was a boom in upgrades, as well as companies finally giving up and issuing their staff the laptops they had been forced to beg for by the odd traditions of corporate culture.
This wasn't rocket science level math, but from whatever basement the poor souls that crunch PC industry sales numbers operate from, this seemed to be a surprise.
Then, when the market was saturated with 2-3 year old machines, they are shocked and stunned that all of these perfectly serviceable machines are still in uses. Despite there having very little released into the PC/Laptop market that even enthusiast users actually care about.
They are also so amazed by Apple bucking the downward trend they forget to mention that they are the only company to push a big refresh of their line due to the M2 rollout and paying a little attention to their languishing computer line after years of leaning into ipads, watches, and phones. They also miss the chance to point out things like the lagging release of the refreshed Pro and Max parts for the M2 line to update the actual Pro verision of the MBP. Or the fact that Apples sheer laziness in updating it's wifi hardware is adding 1-2 YEARS to the adoption timelines for the new WiFi standards.
I don't write well enough to produce copy for the Reg, but I'm wondering if I should be side hustling these channel reports. At least I could give the reporters here some talking points worth re-writing quickly while jugging three actual stories. :)
I'd like to upvote you more than once, but since I can't, I'll do you the favour of using the appropriate icon which, as an AC, you can't do yourself :-)
I must admit, I was expecting the article to be about Gartner, but IDC aren't much better. Pretty much everyone in the IT industry predicted this in the early days of the pandemic when lockdowns and WFH started. I would expect "industry pundits" to predict future trends, not report on what we already know.
No mention of enthusiasts no longer being enthusiastic over CPU/GPU vendors enthusiasm for price gauging, nor how the collapse of crypto (please... Someone make it stop - crypto I mean, not it's long overdue collapse) has reduced if not removed the need for higher end components having to be acquired by purchasing a whole pre-built machine?
(For a while the best way of buying a 3080 or 3090 was to buy a dell/lenovo and then flog the now gpu-less computer since it was less than what scalpers were asking).
Also take into account that a lot of big technology companies, especially in the USA, are shedding staff left-right-and-centre. That means that in many companies, the IT departments are being buried under piles of nearly-new laptops.
I have to admit, I make a paycheck solving problems in the Windows eco-system. I think a lot of us do, and if that environment started working really well a lot of us would find ourselves in the redundant category. So I am content with WinTel being a crappy world in need of my expertise.
However, when I need a laptop for personal business, I am reaching for a MacBook. When I stream TV it is a browser running on a Mac Mini. A half dozen Apple computers have wiggled their way in to my daily usage through no intention of my own, it just happened.
Apple is down 2-3% when the WinTel world is down 20-30%. There is more to that story than an updated product line. Are users finally giving the bird to Microsoft & their advertising platform operating system?
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