IDC has published the latest PC shipment statistics for Q4 2023, showing 67.1 million PCs shipped worldwide during the quarter. Despite large numbers, IDC states it "marginally surpassed expectations" since it reflects 2.7% fewer shipments compared to Q4 2022.
The fourth quarter usually has many holidays and sales events across many countries. Good deals are typically available during this time, encouraging people to make a purchase. IDC calculated shipment data from over 90 countries which includes traditional PCs, desktops, notebooks and workstations. Based on this calculation, the following OEMs are leading:
Lenovo and HP are the only companies that gained more market share compared to Q3 2022, with Asus and Apple having the least amount of sales in the Top 5 category. Lenovo, HP and Dell are enjoying the majority of its OEM PC business amounting to a combined 59.6% of the total shipments during Q4 2023.
Vendors are hoping for a strong 2024
In 2022, there was a 16.5% drop in annual shipments with current analysis showing a further 13.9% decline in 2023. Despite this, IDC is confident that 2024 will show much higher growth. IDC's vice president of Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers Ryan Reith said, "While the market was down again in 2023 in terms of shipments, there is a lot of positive momentum for PCs looking forward. While AI has captured everyone's attention, it shouldn't be overlooked that 2024 is expected to be a strong year for commercial PC refresh, and the advancements around gaming PCs continue to drive market excitement."
Gaming PCs aside, the new frontier is AI and expectations are high for AI PCs. There are upcoming machines with onboard NPUs, designed to improve the usefulness of AI. Microsoft is encouraging peripheral makers to integrate a dedicated Co-Pilot button on every new keyboard, Intel now have AI-friendly CPUs starting with Meteor Lake and Nvidia emphasized AI throughout the RTX 40 Super series presentation during CES 2024.
It would be hard to ascertain if Windows 11's Co-Pilot would be the driving force for user upgrades. OEMs typically sell new hardware with the latest Windows release and this means that Windows 11 and Co-Pilot could soon be running on more devices.
