PC Recovery Continues as the Market Grows 3 Percent in 2Q24

The Traditional PC market delivered its second quarter of growth following seven consecutive quarters of decline, according to preliminary results from IDC. Worldwide shipments reached 64.9 million units in the second quarter of 2024, representing a year-over-year growth of 3.0%. While the overall market benefited from favorable comparisons to 2023, weak results in China continued to hold the market back. Excluding China, worldwide shipments grew more than 5%.

"Make no mistake, the PC market just like other technology markets faces challenges in the near term due to maturity and headwinds," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Device Trackers. "However, two consecutive quarters of growth, combined with plenty of market hype around AI PCs and a less sexy but arguably more important commercial refresh cycle, seems to be what the PC market needed. The buzz is clearly around AI, but a lot is happening with non-AI PC purchasing to make this mature market show signs of positivity."

In recent months, most of the industry players have laid out their initial strategies for AI PCs focusing primarily on the component side and the potential of the commercial market. While IDC believes the commercial market has the biggest short-term upside for AI in the PC industry, the consumer story has yet to be told in full. All eyes are on Apple to drive that message later this year with anticipated product launches, but it shouldn't be overlooked that Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD are all likely to make noise around both consumer and commercial AI PCs.

"Outside the commercial refresh cycle, promotional activity from consumer-oriented brands and channels have helped bolster the segment," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "The market has also moved past the rock bottom pricing brought about by excess inventory last year, signifying growth in average selling prices due to richer configurations and reduced discounting."

According to preliminary results, Lenovo continued to lead the market with 14.7 million shipments. The company grew 3.7% compared with the same period last year and held 22.7% of the market share. HP remained second with 1.8% growth to 13.7 million shipments and 21.1% share. Dell is still third despite the year-over-year fall of 2.4%. Dell shipped 10.1 million devices and held 15.5% of the PC market. Apple was fourth with the largest year-over-year growth of 20.8%. The company delivered 5.7 million PCs and had an 8.8% market share. Acer closed the top five with a 13.7% growth, 4.4 million devices shipped, and 6.8% of the market share in 2Q24.