Global PC shipments fall 20.1% in Q3 2026, according to IDC

The third quarter usually closes with more computers sold than the second. However, the component crisis and exorbitant prices continue to punish the market. Therefore, in 2026 the opposite has happened: shipments fell by 9.1% compared to April-June. According to the preliminary results of IDCthe global PC market stood at 62.7 million units, 20.1% less than a year beforewhen 78.5 million were sent. It is the second consecutive year-on-year decline, considerably deeper than the 3.8% in the second quarter.

The consultant explains this situation by two factors that add up. On the one hand, manufacturers and distributors They accumulated inventory in the first half of the year to get ahead of memory price increases, which inflated shipments at the time and left no demand for the following quarter.

In addition, as we said, supply problems and higher prices continue, linked to the construction of data centers for AI. Remember that IDC only counts desktops, laptops and workstations as PCs. It does not include tablets or x86 servers. Likewise, shipments include both units that reach distributors and those that go to end users.

Lenovo, HP and Dell give up 4.2 share points

The first three manufacturers fell faster than the market and, together, lost 4.2 share points, something that IDC attributes to them probably suffering from the effect of that previous stockpiling. Lenovo maintains first place with 14.9 million units22.6% less, and 23.8% market share. HP is down 30.9% to 10.3 million, the biggest drop on the list, and Dell is down 25% to 7.6 million.

Another fact that caught our attention is that Apple and ASUS registered much smaller declines than the rest of the market. Both manufacturers are located in the least bad part of the table. For example, Apple shipped 5.9 million devices, 11.3% less, and increased its share from 8.5% to 9.5%, while ASUS, with 5.5 million and a drop of 8.6%, went from 7.6% to 8.7%. The rest of the manufacturers, grouped together, fell by 14% and reached 29.4% of the total.

Jitesh Ubrani, director of consumer device research at IDC, notes that distributors fear accumulating too much inventory in a market where high prices dampen demand. What effect could that have on the consumer? Well, we could see promotions and some occasional relief, but in any case do not expect prices close to those of a year ago.

He adds that, with macroeconomic conditions deteriorating, the outlook for the coming quarters could get worse before it gets better. IDC also warns that a weaker economy could further reduce demand during the rest of 2026 and into 2027. Without a doubt, the outlook for consumer electronics and especially the PC world remains bleak.