PC makers shipped 62.7 million machines in the third quarter of 2026, down from 78.5 million a year earlier. IDC put the fall at 20.1 percent, and it says that is the biggest drop it has ever recorded in a third quarter. Omdia, counting laptops, desktops and workstations differently, reported 58.1 million devices and a 21.2 percent decline. Omdia called it the sharpest since the first quarter of 2023.
The numbers behind it
Omdia’s breakdown shows desktops, including desktop workstations, falling 23.5 percent to 11.7 million units. Laptops, including laptop workstations, dropped 20.6 percent to 46.4 million.
The quarter-on-quarter picture looks odd too. IDC says the industry shipped 9.1 percent fewer PCs than in the second quarter, when 68.2 million units went out. Third-quarter shipments normally beat the second, so a sequential fall stands out.
Why buyers stayed away
Here’s what happened in plain terms. Think of it like a household that bought a year of groceries in the spring because prices were about to rise: the pantry is full, and the store sees little traffic afterwards. IDC said many PC vendors and sales channels stocked up early in the year in anticipation of memory price hikes, which left minimal demand for the third quarter.
Now the channels are stuck holding that stock. “[Sales] channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand,” said Jitesh Ubrani, IDC’s research director for consumer devices.
Ubrani told PCMag that bigger declines have occurred. The fourth quarter of 2022 fell 28.2 percent and the first quarter of 2023 fell 28.7 percent, both coming off pandemic highs.
