After two years of explosive growth, global PC shipments are starting to slow, according to IDC. Credit: Dell Technologies Following two years of double-digit growth, global shipments of personal computing devices declined 5% in the first quarter of 2022, according to research carried out by the analyst house IDC. Even with global sales slowing to start the year, vendors still shipped 80.5 million laptop, desktop, notebook and workstation devices during the first quarter of 2022, marking the seventh consecutive quarter where global shipments surpassed 80 million. That’s the longest sustained period of more than 80 million global PC shipments since 2012. The top vendors in the market have remained unchanged since the fourth quarter of 2021, with Lenovo holding a 23% market share. At Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the company announced a host of new ThinkPad, IdeaPad and tablet devices, all aimed at better enabling remote and hybrid working. HP and Dell Technologies both experienced double-digit market growth share this quarter too, at 20% and 17% respectively. Apple were ranked fourth by IDC’s tracker and fifth place was shared by ASUS and Acer. The research also found that, partly due to ongoing supply chain shortages, notebook PCs saw a year-over-year decline, while desktops grew slightly. Dell, Apple, and ASUS were the only major vendors that saw year-over-year shipment growth. Commenting on the results, Ryan Reith, group vice president for IDC’s worldwide mobile device trackers, said that the focus “shouldn’t be on the year-over-year decline in PC volumes, because that was to be expected” but rather the ability for the industry to still manage to ship more than 80 million PCs “at a time when logistics and supply chain are still a mess, accompanied by numerous geopolitical and pandemic-related challenges.” Jay Chou, research manager for IDC’s quarterly PC monitor tracker echoed his thoughts, noting that “aside from commercial spending on PCs, there are still emerging markets where demand had been neglected in the earlier periods of the pandemic, and higher end consumer demand also has held up.” Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe