The global PC market has seen a marked decline amid economic concerns on a global scale in 2022, according to new analyst data.
Latest numbers from Channels says total worldwide desktop and notebook sales fell year-on-year to 285 million, down 16% from 2021.
However, the high of 341 million in 2021 was higher than every year before up to and including 2013 – a period in which global shipments fell to an annual low of below 261 million in 2018.
PC sales in 2022 and earlier
More broadly, the figures for 2022 were higher than before the 2019 pandemic, representing similarly steady growth as in the years leading up to 2019.
This has led some to believe that the figures for 2020 and 2021 have been artificially inflated as a result of many people’s sudden demand for working from home or hybrid work, meaning companies have been forced to invest in more mobile infrastructure.
Lenovo topped the charts in the last quarter of 2022 with 15,470 laptops and desktops sold, down 28.9% from the fourth quarter of 2021. HP and Dell followed in second and third with both a 29% and 37.2% decrease, respectively.
While overall PC shipments in the fourth quarter fell by an average of 28.7% in 2022 compared to 2021, it is clear that some companies were better off than others, with Dell at the worse end of the scale.
While Apple saw a less significant decline, it was still down 7.5% year-on-year, bringing total Mac shipments to 7,229 in Q4 2022. Overall, Apple PC shipments fell 6.2% for the full year .
Looking ahead, it is difficult to say whether the numbers will return to pre-pandemic lower levels or decline less sharply. While there is always the possibility that even more computers will be sold in 2023 than the year before, at least for now, the tough forecasts make the future look quite uncertain.