Gartner reported on Tuesday that PC shipments for the second quarter of this year are down 16.6% from the second quarter of 2022, continuing a decline that has lasted for seven consecutive quarters.

The high inventory and low demand resulted in a 30% drop-off in shipments in Q1 of 2023 (compared to Q1 of 2022), with factors like inflation strongly impacting purchasing and adding supply-chain costs. Mikako Kitagawa, Director Analyst at Gartner, noted that this quarter's declines still offer promising signs.

“There has been progress in reducing PC inventory after more than a year of issues, supported by a gradual increase in business PC demand. Gartner expects that PC inventory will normalize by the end of 2023, and PC demand will return to growth starting in 2024.”

Global PC sales plummet again; drops of 30% or more hit Apple, Lenovo, Dell

Lenovo Losses

While Lenovo, which operates headquarters in Beijing and the Triangle, remains at the top of industry sales, they may not be so pleased with the quarter's report as their hold on the top spot in the market narrowed. In particular, the North American market share for Lenovo and HP is now a statistical dead heat, with both companies at 26.7%. While the overall shipment numbers have dropped for all major players, HP and Apple have both gained market share, while Lenovo, Dell, Acer, and others have seen drops.

Lenovo did see an increase in shipments compared with Q1 of this year. Even though the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions continue to be a problem, the company had only modest declines in Latin America and North America.

Lenovo maintains a narrow lead in the industry over HP, which saw some improvements in laptop shipments but was hit by declining desktop shipments. That said, the US laptop market has been strong for HP and total shipments are also up for the company compared with Q1.

The US economy has been relatively stable, allowing for PC demand to stay stronger here than in some other parts of the world. In particular, Chromebooks for educational institutions and government purchases of laptops have contributed to solid demand.

Meanwhile, the EMEA market saw a 14.6% year-over-year drop fueled in large part by political unrest and inflation concerns.