PC Market Remains Resilient in 3Q24

The global PC market’s shipments grew 1% in the third quarter of 2024, reaching 65.3 million units, according to Counterpoint Research’s preliminary projections. This marks the continuation of the positive growth momentum that began in 1Q24.

Despite the early pull-in orders in Q2 and relatively mediocre demand in China and Europe in Q3, the shipments were still ~5% higher than that in Q2, mainly driven by ongoing replacement demand before the end of Windows 10 security updates and technical support in 2025, and increasing sales of AI PCs. With the inventory level largely normalizing in H1, PC vendors are moving forward to launch even more new models.

Lenovo saw its fourth consecutive YoY shipment growth quarter in Q3. The brand has regained 25% market share since 4Q20, riding on the trend of a replacement cycle. HP and Dell remained resilient in the quarter, supported mainly by demand in the North American market and increasing enterprise orders. Apple was relatively quiet in the quarter as the market waited for its M4-based laptops and desktops.

Since 2021, even with the back-to-school shopping season, Q3 has not been as strong as it was in pre-Covid days. Counterpoint Research believes this is due to the change in the working environment and lifestyle, as well as the procurement strategy on the enterprise side. The analytics company expects the demand for Windows 10 replacements to diminish, with AI PCs taking over to continue the growth momentum. They also predict that the holiday season can continue this positive momentum with YTD 2% YoY shipment growth.

“We have observed incremental demand for GenAI PCs, especially for laptops after AMD and Intel’s new CPU platform launches in Q3 2024. However, people are still looking at killer applications of the AI PC to add value to their day-to-day missions, which we believe will likely happen in the short term and boost shipment growth,” said William Li, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research.