The global personal computer market faced a challenging second quarter in 2026, with total shipments of desktops, notebooks, and workstations falling by 3.6% year-over-year to 65.7 million units. Driven by rising component costs and shifting consumer behavior, the industry is currently grappling with mounting supply pressures and cooling demand.
Key takeaways
- Total PC shipments fell to 65.7 million units, a 3.6% year-over-year decline.
- Notebook shipments dropped by 4.2%, while desktops saw a more modest 1.3% decrease.
- Rising memory and storage costs have forced vendors to increase prices by 20% to 40% compared to last year.
- Lenovo remains the market leader, while Apple saw significant growth due to the launch of the MacBook Neo.
Impact of component inflation
The decline in shipment volume is largely attributed to the sharp increase in memory and storage prices that occurred during the first quarter of 2026. These costs had a significant impact on product pricing throughout the second quarter, leading to price hikes across the industry. Across comparable product lines, costs for consumers have risen by approximately 20% to 40% compared to the same period last year.
In addition to memory and storage, other essential components such as multilayer ceramic capacitors and printed circuit boards have become increasingly expensive. Vendors have been forced to pass these costs on to customers, which has begun to dampen demand as the market moves into the second half of the year.
Vendor performance overview
Despite the broader market contraction, the top five vendors showed varying levels of resilience. Lenovo maintained its position as the industry leader, while Apple recorded the strongest growth among the major players, largely driven by the successful launch of the MacBook Neo.
Market outlook for the remainder of 2026
Looking ahead, signals point toward a period of delayed demand as the true impact of the supply crunch takes hold. A recent survey of B2B channel partners revealed that more than half of customers are postponing hardware refresh plans until the market stabilizes. While some commercial fleets are nearing the one-year anniversary of the Windows 10 end-of-support deadline, the current inflationary environment for hardware components suggests that price pressures will persist through the end of the year, likely keeping market growth constrained.
Via Omdia