Summary
Worldwide PC shipments fell 20.1% year over year to 62.7 million units in Q3 2026, according to preliminary IDC data. IDC attributed the drop to earlier inventory buying, supply constraints and elevated prices.
Worldwide shipments of traditional PCs fell 20.1% year over year to 62.7 million units in Q3 2026, according to preliminary figures published by IDC on October 8. Shipments also declined 9.1% from Q2, marking a second consecutive annual drop and reversing the usual seasonal pattern: Q3 typically has higher shipments than Q2.
IDC linked the decline to vendors and distribution channels bringing purchases forward earlier in the year. They built inventory ahead of expected price increases amid supply constraints, leaving less need to replenish stock during Q3. High prices also weighed on demand, while the channel worked through the PCs shipped in the previous quarter.
Earlier inventory buying weakened the seasonal quarter
The pull-in refers to buying planned for later being brought forward. IDC said vendors and channels stocked up early to get ahead of memory-related price hikes. That raised shipments in the first half but left the market with less demand to draw on in Q3. The company also cited supply constraints and elevated prices associated with the build-out of AI data centres as factors behind the market downturn.
Shipments are not the same as completed purchases by consumers. IDC counts PCs shipped either to distribution channels or to end users, so the figure also reflects inventory moving through the supply chain. The tracker’s traditional-PC category includes desktops, notebooks and workstations; it excludes tablets and x86 servers.
Lenovo, HP and Dell lost market share
The downturn affected the leading vendors unevenly. Lenovo shipped 14.9 million PCs and held 23.8% of the market, down 22.6% from a year earlier. HP Inc shipped 10.3 million, with a 16.5% share, as shipments fell 30.9%. Dell Technologies shipped 7.6 million, accounting for 12.1% of the market, down 25.0% year over year. IDC said the three companies together lost 4.2 percentage points of share, likely reflecting the effects of earlier inventory pull-in.
Apple shipped 5.9 million PCs, down 11.3%, while ASUS shipped 5.5 million, down 8.6%. Both declined less than the market overall, according to IDC’s preliminary table.
IDC expects elevated prices to persist well above year-ago levels, although inventory concerns and soft demand could prompt short-term promotions. It also warned that worsening macroeconomic conditions could further weaken demand and darken the outlook for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027.