Gartner Confirms PC Sales Fall in 2022

Photo credit: Lenovo

Last month, IDC reported that it expected PC sales to fall by 8 percent in 2022. But now Gartner concurs, forecasting a 9.5 percent drop.

“A perfect storm of geopolitics upheaval, high inflation, currency fluctuations, and supply chain disruptions have lowered business and consumer demand for devices across the world and is set to impact the PC market the hardest in 2022,” Gartner senior director analyst Ranjit Atwal says. “Consumer PC demand is on pace to decline 13.1 percent in 2022 and will plummet much faster than business PC demand, which is expected to decline 7.2 percent year over year.”

I had been expecting a post-pandemic PC sales decline, though I wasn’t sure about the timing. But with both IDC and Gartner now weighing in, I guess that time is now. Interestingly, the reasons for this decline are more varied than just the pandemic (sort of) ending. And though both firms agree that consumer demand, supply chain issues, war, and inflation are part of the mix, each also credits some other factors. IDC, for example, also noted ongoing China lockdowns, while Gartner, as noted above, cites currency fluctuations.

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IDC at least offered some hope, adding that it expects PC shipments to return to growth in 2023. But Gartner has issued no opinions about the PC market after 2022.

The one thing both firms do agree on, however, is that PC sales in 2022—about 316 million units, based on an average of the IDC and Gartner numbers—will still be above pre-pandemic levels: PC makers sold just 264 million units in 2019.

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Conversation 9 comments

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    11 July, 2022 - 3:00 pm

    <p>| <em>IDC at least offered some hope, adding that it expects PC shipments to return to growth in 2023.</em></p><p><br></p><p>Would that <em>growth</em> mean higher PC shipments than 2022 or higher than 2021? Picky arithmetic: a 5% decrease one year followed by a 5% increase the next year doesn’t return you to where you began.</p><p><br></p><p>Looks like Windows 11 hasn’t prevented the sales decline from the pandemic highs. Quelle suprise!</p><p><br></p><p>Being serious, other than Windows 11’s hardware requirements being much stricter than Windows 10’s, is there much if any 3rd party application software which REQUIRES Windows 11? In the last almost 2 decades once application developers had figured out NOT to use HKLM or try to write anything under %ProgramFiles% without FIRST checking whether running with Administrator privileges, has there been ANY non-game application software which didn’t run under the most recent Windows version past EOS at the time?</p><p><br></p><p>In automobile metaphors, has Windows reached the point at which new versions provide little more than aesthetic changes like ever larger tail fins? For me, if I could have the same back end OS, I’d gladly take the Windows 10 desktop UI over the Windows 11 one. Greater dark theme support isn’t must-have for me.</p>

  • rob_segal

    Premium Member
    11 July, 2022 - 6:55 pm

    <p>Mac shipments are growing while PCs are declining. Something to keep an eye on.</p>

    • rbgaynor

      11 July, 2022 - 11:29 pm

      <p>Especially with the M2 MacBook Air about to hit shelves.</p>

    • matsan

      12 July, 2022 - 12:12 am

      <p>Guilty of buying three Macs during the first six months after shuffling around orders and waiting several months for shipment. </p><p>Macrumors has the full list of vendors and I find it amazing that Microsoft doesn’t register, even on Gartner’s US-only list where Acer is fifth with 1340000 units estimated sold during the first six months.</p>

      • rob_segal

        Premium Member
        12 July, 2022 - 12:20 am

        <p>For all the press Surface gets when they announce new products, they never sold a lot when compared to other PC manufacturers. I’m interested to see if Mac continues to grow year over year. </p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    12 July, 2022 - 4:21 am

    <p>With heating and power costs set to rise by up to 600% this fall, I don’t think most people are interested in buying anything that isn’t absolutely essential at the moment.</p><p><br></p><p>The government here is talking about taking up some of the rise, but suddenly having to find an extra 5,000€ for the gas bill is going to be hard.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      12 July, 2022 - 4:23 am

      <p>There will also be gas rationing, going into winter, by the looks of it.</p><p><br></p><p>Some of the big landlords (companies with 10,000s of properties in German) have already announced they will turn down the heating in the evening to 17°C (62°F) to reduce consumption.</p>

    • matsan

      12 July, 2022 - 7:00 am

      <p>Enjoying the same crazy situation here in middle of Sweden. The price/kWh was up with 390% from Dec 2020 to Dec 2021 and that was before the Russo-Ukrainian war. Swedens own Die Grüne have successfully ruined the power grid by enforcing premature closure of nuclear power plants. This in combination with the EU directive 2019/943 forcing countries with renewable energy to export it to other EU countries (like Germany and Poland) has caused this unfortunate perfect storm.</p><p>Last winter we fully relied on wood furnace for heating and I will extend Home Assistant with radiator and floor-heating control in time for this winter to avoid the highest peaks in prices.</p>

  • dallasnorth40

    Premium Member
    12 July, 2022 - 2:03 pm

    <p>I just bought a fully speced out Surface Laptop Studio. So, I’m doing my part. The rest of you guys need to step it up. </p>

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