PC Sales Down 12% In 2022 | Biden News

For the first fifteen years of my work at Creative Strategies, Inc, I tracked computer sales like most of my competitors. I had a strong relationship with the companies that make computers in Asia, and they became reliable sources to help me understand the demand from 1981 to 1996. Although I did not publish those numbers, I did make them available to customers to help them understand market demand. .

But as mobile computing began to gain ground and as I spent more time helping my clients understand the portable computer market and its evolution, I left our coverage of PC shipments to provide more custom services for our clients.

Over my 41-year career, I’ve watched PC demand ebb and flow. Not long after the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981, demand for computers for business began to take off. They were expensive at first, but thanks to software called Visicalc, the first spreadsheet for IBM computers, large and medium-sized businesses saw them as a way to automate their financial services. Computers justified their cost at any price.

By 1983 Compaq and HP began selling computers, and when Dell entered the market in the late 1980s with a direct-marketing strategy, increased competition drove prices down. However, with new software for word processing and database management, computer sales for businesses grew steadily.

In 1992, when the CD-ROM drives became popular, we saw computers gain interest in education and high-end consumer markets. By 1996, when laptops entered the market, demand for computers increased exponentially.

By the mid-2000s, the computer industry was selling as many as 325 million computers a year and cementing the computer as a crucial tool for business, education and consumers.

In 2007, PC sales fell dramatically to 260 million units per year, and the PC manufacturers sold only 275 million in 2009. Then, due to a new Windows refresh cycle and an improving economy, PC sales returned to about 346 million in 2010. 2013, according to IDC, computer sales fell to 315 million. IDC predicted sales to be approximately 295 million in 2014.

Until 2020, PC sales remained around 275-280 million units, but due to Covid and work-from-home orders, PC sales in 2020 reached 302.6 million units. In 2021, global PC sales reached 348.8 million sold. It grew by 14.8% over 2020 and was the highest since 2012.

IDC recently updated its forecast for PC and tablet markets and said that, “tumultuous times are ahead for the PC and tablet markets according to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computer Device Tracker. Global shipments of traditional PCs are forecast to decline 12.8% in 2022 to 305.3 million units, while tablet shipments will fall 6.8% to 156.8 million. Inflation, a weakening global economy and the increase in purchasing power over the last two years are the main causes of the reduced outlook.

Further contraction is also expected in 2023 as consumer demand has slowed, educational demand has largely been met, and corporate demand is pushed back by worsening macroeconomic conditions. The combined PC and tablet market is forecast to decline by 2.6% in 2023 before returning to growth in 2024.”

We’re going to have tough times in the PC market this year and most of next year. However, in my discussions with ODMs, the PC manufacturers mainly in Taiwan and China, they suggested that for the enterprise market, we could see growth as early as Q3 in 2023. Furthermore, they tell me that while consumer demand most likely. won’t rebound until 2024, they say they now see increased orders for enterprise PCs and laptops for delivery as early as Q3 2024.

Computer vendors receive feedback from business customers who have not purchased large quantities of PCs and laptops for the past two years, and many of their computers intended for IT use are well past their sell-by date. With that in mind, some vendors are increasing their orders for IT-focused PCs and laptops for delivery in late 2023.

The economy will be the warning to this more positive outlook of earlier consumption of IT spending in 2024. PC vendors are cautiously optimistic about IT demand resuming in the second half of 2023 but acknowledge that global economic problems are the main factor for IT . not start upgrading cycles late next year. However, PC vendors are ordering more PCs and laptops for delivery in the second half of 2023, just in case.