In its Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker the market analysis firm says the decrease means there has been a 15% year-on-year decline in PC shipments. Even so, the shifts seen in the pandemic are still evident. Sales remain higher than they were before the pandemic. Furthermore, the company points to Apple devices as covering for others in the market: “Consumer demand has remained muted though promotional activity from the likes of Apple and other players has helped soften the fall and reduce channel inventory by a couple weeks across the board,” says Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. “Supply has also reacted to the new lows by reducing orders with Apple being the only exception as their third quarter supply increased to make up for lost orders stemming from the lockdowns in China during the second quarter.” LeL Lenovo remains the market leader with 16.8 million shipments, a declin of 16.1% year-on-year (YoY). HP is in second plsace with 12.7 million shipments, down from 17.6 million during Q3 2021. Apple’s 10 million shipments puts the company fourth, but is a 40% increase on the 7.1 million shipments YoY.
Changing Dynamics
The halcyon days of the PC are obviously behind us, but sales never really collapse. There is a sort of equilibrium in the market with brief improvements and declines seemingly happening each year. Perhaps this highlights the nature of PC consumers, who will only upgrade devices after several years. IDC says increasing prices may also be the reason for the current decline, as well as cooling from the pandemic sales highs: “In addition to shipment volumes, we’ll be keeping a close eye on how average selling prices (ASPs) trend this quarter,” points out Linn Huang, research vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC. “Shortages over the last several years have aggressively driven product mix shifts towards the premium end. This, coupled with cost increases of components and logistics, drove ASPs up five quarters in a row to $910 in 1Q22, the highest since 2004. However, with demand slowing, promotions in full swing, and orders being cut, the ASP climb was reversed in 2Q22. Another quarter of ASP declines indicates a market in retreat.” Tip of the day: Though many VPN providers have their own apps, you can in many cases connect to a VPN in Windows without any third-party software. This is ideal if you have a self-hosted VPN or if you’re using a PC with restricted permissions. In our tutorial, we’re showing you how to connect to a VPN in Windows.
