It’s a tough time to be a PC vendor: worldwide PC shipments dropped 20.1% in the third quarter of 2026 as rising memory prices, component shortages and weak consumer demand disrupted the global computer market, according to research firm IDC.
PC manufacturers shipped 62.7 million units during the quarter, down from 78.5 million in the same period last year. The loss of 15.8 million shipments is a sharp fall from the second quarter, when the market declined 3.8% year-over-year.
A separate report from research firm Omdia estimated an even larger third-quarter decline of 21.2%, including a 23.5% drop in desktop shipments and a 20.6% decline in laptops.
The downturn is a sign of a new challenge for PC manufacturers: the rapid expansion of AI data centers is devouring semiconductor production capacity that would otherwise support consumer computing devices.
Memory manufacturers are directing more resources toward high-bandwidth memory, which is used in the next-gen GPUs that train and run AI models. Micron, for example, discontinued its Crucial consumer RAM and SSD brand in late 2025 to concentrate resources on data center customers.
This shift has limited supplies of conventional memory and storage components, dramatically boosting production costs for PC vendors. Memory prices have zoomed upward by as much as 500% for some products.
The shortage has squeezed computer manufacturers, which must secure components while attempting to keep retail prices affordable.
For enterprise buyers who plan using longer time frames, the concern is whether today’s heavy investment in AI will keep diverting semiconductor resources from PC markets. Some of these buyers may be considering the new generation of AI PCs equipped with neural processing units, but these systems face the same component supply limits affecting traditional PCs.
Decline Among All Leading Vendors
The negative impact is seen across the industry’s largest vendors. HP suffered the steepest decline among major manufacturers, with shipments falling 30.9% year-over-year, according to IDC. Dell recorded a 25% decline, while market leader Lenovo saw shipments contract 22.6%.
Apple performed comparatively better, with an 11.3% decline, while Asus shipments fell 8.6%.
Despite the losses, Lenovo retained its leading position with 23.8% of global shipments, followed by HP at 16.5% and Dell at 12.1%.
Beyond component shortages, the industry’s purchasing strategy contributed significantly to the third-quarter downturn. PC manufacturers and distributors accumulated inventory during the first half of 2026 in anticipation of further component price increases. That advance purchasing supported first-quarter shipment growth of 3.2%, even as underlying market conditions weakened.
By the third quarter, distributors were holding substantial inventories while customers faced higher computer prices. The effect was especially large because the third quarter usually benefits from back-to-school purchases and enterprise computer upgrades. Instead, shipments declined 9.1% from the second quarter.
Consumers might hope that the resulting inventory surplus will prompt retailers and distributors to offer discounts. Yet IDC expects memory costs to remain high, limiting the potential for a sustained fall in PC prices.
The outlook for component availability remains cloudy at best. Some industry forecasts suggest memory shortages could drag on through 2027 or longer. However, Acer CEO Jason Chen has challenged the more pessimistic predictions, arguing that additional manufacturing capacity in China could help reduce PC prices during the second half of 2027.
In any case, with PC shipments falling and component costs still high, manufacturers face pressure to balance inventory, pricing and demand through the rest of 2026.
