Worldwide PC shipments declined 7.3% in first quarter of 2022: Gartner

Worldwide PC shipments totalled 77.5 million units in the first quarter of 2022, a 7.3 per cent decrease from the first quarter of 2021, according to preliminary results by Gartner. A sharp drop in Chromebook sales significantly contributed to the overall market decline.

“After an unprecedented Chromebook surge in 2020 and early 2021, driven by demand from the US educational market, Chromebook growth has tempered,” said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner. “It was a challenging quarter for the PC and Chromebook market to achieve growth, as this time last year the PC market registered its highest growth in decades.”

Excluding Chromebooks, the worldwide PC market grew by 3.3 per cent year over year. In addition to weakened Chromebook sales, slowed consumer demand contributed to the market’s downward trend, as discretionary spending shifted away from devices. Business PCs, however, saw growth in the first quarter of 2022 as hybrid work and the return to offices created demand for desktop devices.

In the first quarter of 2022, Lenovo maintained the top position in shipments at 23.6 per cent market share.

Lenovo and HP both experienced significant impacts from declining Chromebook sales in the first quarter. Lenovo was affected by slowed US Chromebook sales, but that decline was moderated by its growth in Latin America and Asia Pacific. HP prioritised Chromebooks in recent years but decreased its Chromebook focus in the second half of 2021, leading to a significant decline in overall shipments for the first quarter of 2022.

Dell achieved year-over-year shipment growth in the first quarter, despite ongoing supply constraints in the business market. This quarter marked Dell’s sixth consecutive period of growth, achieved in part due to the company’s relatively minor presence in the declining Chromebook and consumer PC segments.

Meanwhile, Apple continued its momentum to start this year, led by the popularity of the M1-based Mac devices. In the first quarter Apple introduced Mac Studio, a M1-based premium desktop model, driving sales among PC users who require high processing power.

The EMEA PC market decreased 6.3 per cent year-over-year, reaching 22.5 million units. In addition to weak Chromebook demand, the Ukrainian crisis had a significant impact on the region’s PC sales.

“Many PC vendors stopped shipping devices into Russia and demand in Ukraine collapsed,” said Kitagawa. “Additionally, the growing impact of upward inflationary pressure on discretionary spending has no doubt caused consumers to hold back on buying PCs, especially in Eastern Europe, which accounts for around 18 per cent of the EMEA PC market.” Excluding Japan, the Asia Pacific market grew by 4.1 per cent year-over-year, mainly driven by demand for mobile PCs. Desktop PC sales declined in the region, due to weak demand from both consumers and businesses. Even with ongoing lockdowns in China, most buyers had already purchased devices in 2020 and 2021, so PC demand in Asia Pacific was largely driven by replacements as it was pre-pandemic.