PC Shipments Fell 20% in Q3 as Shortages Kept Prices High

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.7 million units in the third quarter of 2026, according to IDC.

That total was down 20.1 percent from Q3 2025 and down 9.1 percent from Q2 2026 Engadget. The decline sped up a downturn that had started in the previous quarter.

IDC cited supply problems and high prices as reasons for the decline. Research director for consumer devices Jitesh Ubrani said distributors and retailers, the sales channels, are worried about holding too much unsold stock when high prices are holding back demand.

Ubrani said IDC does not expect PC pricing to return to levels seen a year ago and that prices will stay high. With broader economic conditions worsening, he said the risk is that the outlook for the next few quarters gets worse before it gets better.

The Q3 result followed a softer second quarter. IDC reported 68.2 million PC units shipped in Q2 2026, down 4.9 percent from a year earlier IDC. IDC said Q2 was the first decline after nine straight quarters of growth.

Earlier in 2026, the market was still expanding. IDC reported that the total Personal Computing Device market, which includes traditional PCs plus tablets, posted 2.8 percent year-over-year growth in Q1 2026. Gartner reported worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.8 million units in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 4 percent Gartner.

For comparison, IDC said worldwide PC shipments in Q3 2025 grew 9.4 percent from the prior year, with early estimates at 75.8 million units. The final Q3 2025 table lists total shipments as 75.9 million units in Q3 2025 versus 69.3 million units in Q3 2024.

By vendor, IDC reported Lenovo shipped 19.4 million PCs in Q3 2025 for 25.5 percent share and 17.3 percent year-over-year growth. HP Inc. shipped 15.0 million units for 19.8 percent share and 10.7 percent growth. Dell Technologies shipped 10.1 million units for 13.3 percent share and 2.6 percent growth.

Apple shipped 6.8 million units in that quarter for 9.0 percent share and 13.7 percent growth. ASUS shipped 5.9 million units for 7.8 percent share and 11.4 percent growth. Other vendors combined shipped 18.6 million units for 24.5 percent share and 3.0 percent growth. For Q3 2024, IDC listed Lenovo at 16.5 million, HP at 13.6 million, Dell at 9.8 million, Apple at 6.0 million, ASUS at 5.3 million and Others at 18.1 million units.

IDC reported the Asia/Pacific PC market including Japan and China recorded double-digit growth in Q3 2025. IDC defines Traditional PCs as desktops, notebooks and workstations and states they do not include tablets or x86 servers IDC.

IDC said a persistent shortage of memory chips, the parts PCs need to run programs and hold data short term, is driving PC prices up and squeezing vendor product lines IDC. IDC forecasts global PC shipments will decline 11.3 percent for full-year 2026.

The broader context here is a shift from growth led by buyers to limits set by supply. Sellers are cautious about inventory when shelf prices stay high and it makes less financial sense for customers to replace machines. Short delays to upgrades, longer use of existing fleets, and narrower configuration choices are the practical response.

In my view, that posture fits a market waiting for component supply to return to normal rather than a loss of need for computers. That normalization may take time, but the installed base continues to age. When supply and pricing stabilize, delayed business upgrades and consumer replacements should support recovery. Client computing has absorbed these cycles before without losing its central role.