Fewer PCs changed hands in the third quarter, and the reason is price. Shipments tumbled by more than a fifth as the AI-driven scramble for memory and storage pushed component costs higher and shoppers decided their current machines were good enough. Omdia calculates a 21.2 percent year-on-year slide to 58.1 million desktops, notebooks, and workstations, while IDC reckons the drop was 20.1 percent to 62.7 million. The two firms disagree on the totals but not on the direction.
The setback was largely self-inflicted. Manufacturers, distributors, and corporate buyers spent the first half racing to place orders before expected hikes, which flattered early-2026 numbers and then left the channel sitting on excess stock with few takers. IDC says unit volumes dropped 9.1 percent from the second quarter, upending the back-to-school lift the industry normally enjoys.
“Vendors and channels loaded up on inventory early in the year to get ahead of price hikes, and that has thrown off the usual seasonality, where Q3 is typically larger than Q2,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research director for consumer devices at IDC.
The component math tells the story. DRAM and solid-state drives now swallow close to 40 percent of what it costs to build a PC, a jump from about 15 percent before, after prices rose more than fourfold. Tight supplies of processors and graphics cards are squeezing budgets too.
No major brand escaped. Lenovo stayed on top with 14.9 million units, a 22.6 percent retreat, according to IDC. HP did worse, down almost 31 percent to 10.3 million, while Dell slid 25 percent to 7.6 million. Apple lost the least ground, off 11 percent, and even expanded its share.
