PC shipments decline slows in Q3 2023, but Apple plunges over 23%

It hasn’t been a great time in recent quarters for PC companies, but with IDC, Gartner and Canalys all reporting data for Q3 2023, it shows an improving landscape. While shipments still declined between 7% and 9%, depending on whose data you look at, the decline was slowing. But perhaps the biggest surprise in these numbers was the fact Apple was the biggest loser this quarter, with numbers declining between 23% and 29%.

First, let’s look at the overall numbers. IDC found the market dropped 7.6% year over year with 68.2 million PCs shipped, Gartner reported a 9% decline with 64.3 million units shipped and Canalys found the market down 7% with 65.6 million units shipped.

In spite of that, the consensus was that the long PC market decline may be over, and we could be headed for better days with the holiday shopping season approaching in the final quarter. “There is evidence that the PC market’s decline has finally bottomed out,” Mikako Kitagawa, director analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.

IDC’s Jitesh Ubrani, agreed, with a caveat. “The PC industry is on a slow path to recovery as a device refresh cycle and end of support for Windows 10 will help drive sales in the second half of 2024 and beyond. In the meantime, the PC industry will unfortunately experience more pain,” Ubrani said in a statement.

When you look at individual manufacturers, Apple experienced by far the biggest decline, with IDC reporting -23.1%, Gartner reporting -24.2% and Canalys -29.1%. The only other company with double-digit reductions was Asus, with -10.7%, -11.5% and -10.7%, respectively.

If you’re looking for the only company in positive territory, that would be HP, with IDC and Gartner reporting an increase of 6.4% and Canalys only slightly different at 6.5%.

Canalys’ Kieren Jessop sees AI as being a huge boost to the PC market in the coming years. “Canalys forecasts that adoption of AI-capable PCs will accelerate from 2025 onward, with such devices accounting for around 60% of all PCs shipped in 2027. Vendors and channel partners who seize this opportunity will benefit from both the higher prices AI-capable PCs command and the wider opportunities to provide services and solutions in addition to hardware,” he said in a statement.

These are the numbers as reported by each firm for Q3 2023: