New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Global PC shipments totalled 55.4 million units in the third quarter of 2026, down 22.4 per cent from the third quarter of 2025, a report said on Monday.
The report from technology insights company Gartner said the steep decline was driven by higher memory and storage costs that vendors passed on to customers.
“DRAM costs surged five times year-over-year in the second quarter, and PC vendors passed those higher component costs on to customers, driving the steep decline in PC shipments during the third quarter,” said Namrata Banerjee, Principal, Research at Gartner.
The report said the market dynamics in Q3 2026 differed from past downturns.
“Rather than excess inventory, the decline in the third quarter of 2026 was driven by higher prices, vendor-led reprioritisation of scarce components and a shift toward higher-priced configurations,” Banerjee said.
Consequently, the reduction in the availability of lower-cost devices made replacement purchases less affordable for consumers, while businesses focused spending on targeted investments, such as workstations and AI PCs rather than broad-based PC deployments.
All of the top six worldwide PC vendors experienced shipment declines in the third quarter of 2026. Lenovo remained the market leader, with shipments falling 22.4 per cent year-over-year in line with the market. Its supply chain scale and broader AI and infrastructure portfolio helped preserve its competitive position.
Apple recorded the lowest shipment decline of the top six vendors and gained 1.7 percentage points of market share, supported by its portfolio of mainstream MacBooks.
Another recent report has said that tablet shipments in India eased 3.8 per cent year‑on‑year in the second quarter of 2026 as brands began passing higher input costs to consumers, raising prices and prompting a shift toward higher‑priced models.
Brands increased prices across portfolios and streamlined memory variants, lifting the average selling price by 15 per cent.
The sub‑Rs 20,000 segment, which has traditionally formed the backbone of India’s tablet market, was most impacted by the memory price hike, declining 43 per cent YoY in Q2.
—IANS
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