Worldwide PC Shipments Decline Another 15.0% in the Third Quarter of 2022, According to IDC Tracker

What They Say

IDC put out its quarterly PC data for Q3 2022 and said that shipments were down 15% because of weak demand and uneven supply although they are still above pre-pandemic levels. IDC pointed out that promotions had managed to reduce inventories a little, and that ASPs were down, as they were in Q2 after five quarters of rises. The ASP drop indicates, IDC said ‘a market in retreat’.

Apple continues to do well and reached 13.5%, not that much behind Dell’s 16.1% on volume,

What We Think

When I saw the headline, I didn’t expect the level to be above the pre-pandemic levels. There’s no doubt that everybody remembered why a PC is (almost) indispensible. I often quote ‘Bob’s second law’ (everything that increases visual bandwidth wins in the end) but not so often my first law. I was around in the very early days of PCs and it was a few years in when I realised that while nobody understood why they would want their own computer until they got one, after they did, they couldn’t give them up, so I came up with Bob’s Law – “everyone that buys a computer always buys another’. Sometimes, these days, the form factor changes, and you might have to stretch the definition of PC a bit, but the Law still works, I think!

Apple’s result is very impressive and must be even more so on a value basis. (BR)