PC sales fell sharply in 2022, and not even Apple is safe
The global PC market saw a marked decline amid economic concerns on a global scale in 2022, new analyst figures have declared.
The latest numbers from Canalys claim global total desktop and notebook sales were down year-on-year to 285.1 million, representing a 16% drop compared with 2021.
However, 2021 figures were among the highest in nearly a decade, following a trend that saw it and the year before experience significant growth in the market.
2022 PC sales vs before
Looking more broadly, 2022 figures were up on pre-pandemic 2019 figures, representing a similarly steady growth to the years we saw leading up to 2019.
This has led some to believe that the 2020 and 2021 figures are artificially inflated as a result of the sudden requirement for many to work from home or embrace hybrid working, meaning that companies were forced to invest in more mobile infrastructure.
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Leading the charts in the final quarter of 2022 was Lenovo, which shifted 15,470 laptops and desktops – down 28.9% compared with Q4 2021. In second and third place were HP and Dell, each witnessing a 29% and 37.2% decline respectively.
While overall fourth quarter PC shipments dropped by an average of 28.7% in 2022 compared with 2021, it’s clear that some companies were better off than others, with Dell ending up on the poorer end of the scale.
While Apple reported a less significant decline, it was still 7.5% down year-on-year, resulting in a Q4 2022 total of 7,229 shipments of its Mac lineup. As a whole, Apple PC shipments were down 6.2% throughout the whole year.
Looking forward, it’s hard to tell whether figures will return to lower pre-pandemic levels, or will suffer a less sudden decline. While there’s always the possibility that 2023 will see even more computers sold than in the year that preceded it, for now at least, a tricky outlook leaves the future looking pretty uncertain.
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