The worldwide PC market saw a decline of 7.3 percent in shipments during the first quarter of 2022, which totalled 77.5 million units, according to preliminary results by Gartner. Reportedly, this time last year, the PC market registered its highest growth in decades, but this time it was a challenging quarter for the PC and Chromebook market to achieve growth, as per the report. Excluding Chromebooks, the worldwide PC market grew by a modest 3.3 percent year-over-year. The report, however, shows growth in business PCs shipments in the first quarter of 2022 as hybrid work mode and the return to offices created demands for desktop devices.
According to the report by the US-based research firm, Lenovo remained the top company with a 23.6 percent market share, followed by HP at 20.5 percent, Dell at 17.7 percent, and Apple at 9.0 percent. Asus and Acer were tied for the number 5 position in the first quarter, with 7.2 percent and 7.1 percent market shares respectively. Dell, Apple, and Asus were the only top-tier vendors that saw year-over-year shipment growth. As a result of the ongoing supply chain shortages and a challenging comparison, notebook PCs saw a year-over-year decline while desktops grew slightly.
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q22 (Thousand of Units)
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Gartner
Lenovo and HP both experienced significant impacts from declining Chromebook sales in the first quarter. Lenovo was affected by slowed US Chromebook sales, but that decline was moderated by its growth in Latin America and the Asia Pacific.
Meanwhile, the PC market is coming off two years of double-digit growth, so while the first-quarter decline is a change in momentum, it doesn’t mean the industry is in a downward spiral. The rankings among the top vendors remained unchanged in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.
These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon.