Worldwide PC shipments fell by roughly one-fifth in the third quarter of 2026, according to preliminary estimates from IDC, Gartner and Omdia.
IDC reported worldwide PC shipments of 62.7 million units in Q3 2026, down 20.1% from 78.5 million a year earlier and down 9.1% from Q2. Gartner estimated 55.4 million units, down 22.4% from Q3 2025. Omdia estimated 58.1 million desktops, notebooks and workstations, down 21.2% year over year.
The usual third-quarter lift did not happen
IDC said vendors and channels loaded up on inventory earlier in the year to get ahead of memory-driven price hikes. That pulled demand forward and left Q3 without the seasonal lift that usually makes it larger than Q2.
The firm called it the second straight quarterly decline and said the drop was much deeper than the 3.8% decline recorded in Q2. The sequential fall matters because it shows the market weakened even before comparing the quarter with last year.
Memory and storage costs are squeezing the market
Gartner said DRAM costs surged five times year over year in Q2 and that PC vendors passed higher component costs to customers. Its analysts said that raised average selling prices and reduced the availability of lower-cost devices.
Omdia put another number on the same squeeze. The firm said DRAM and SSDs have risen from a typical 15% of a PC’s cost to nearly 40%, with price increases more than fourfold. It also pointed to shortages of processors, graphics cards and other integrated-circuit components.
IDC also linked higher price points to AI data center build-out, which has intensified competition for memory and related components.
A slower market does not automatically mean cheaper PCs
Reduced shipments can sound like a buyer-friendly signal, but this downturn is not a simple oversupply story. Gartner said reduced availability of lower-cost devices made replacement purchases less affordable for consumers, while businesses focused on targeted investments such as workstations and AI PCs rather than broad PC deployments.
IDC said high channel inventory could create promotions and short-term relief for consumers, but prices are not expected to return near year-ago levels. Omdia forecast a further 24% year-over-year decline in Q4 2026 and another 7% decline for full-year 2027.
HP and Dell fell faster than the market
IDC’s preliminary vendor table showed Lenovo remained first, while HP and Dell recorded steeper declines than the overall market.
Vendor
Q3 2026 shipments
Year-over-year change
Lenovo
14.9 million
-22.6%
HP Inc.
10.3 million
-30.9%
Dell Technologies
7.6 million
-25.0%
Apple
5.9 million
-11.3%
ASUS
5.5 million
-8.6%
Omdia’s vendor reading was broadly similar on rankings, with Lenovo first and HP second.
Why the totals differ between analyst firms
The headline is consistent across the reports, but the exact totals are not identical. Shipment trackers are not retail checkout counts. They measure devices moving into distribution channels or to end users, depending on the tracker methodology.
IDC says its traditional PC figures include desktops, notebooks and workstations but exclude tablets and x86 servers. Gartner says its table includes desktop and laptop PCs equipped with Windows, macOS and Chrome OS and is based on sell-in shipments to channels. Omdia counts desktops, notebooks and workstations.
Fourth-quarter data will show whether Q3 was the steepest part of the reset or the start of a longer downturn into 2027.
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