New analyst figures have claimed the PC market is back to gaining the momentum it needs to start growing again.
IDC figures claim during Q2 2024, shipments of desktops and notebooks increased by 3-3.4% year-over-year to 62.8-64.9 million units, with portable laptop models continuing to lead the way accounting for around four in five shipments and experiencing the biggest growth.
The healthy increase can be attributed to both the nearing end-of-life of Windows 10 and the rise in interest in upcoming AI-capable PCs, as well as a surge in Apple‘s Mac devices.
PC industry is heading in the right direction, finally
Canalys Principal Analyst Ishan Dutt commented: “The PC industry is going from strength to strength with a third consecutive quarter of growth.”
During the quarter that ended on June 30, Copilot+ PCs were launched and Apple announced its plans for generative AI, which Canalys suspects contributed to strong sales.
While Apple’s market share continues to hover around the 7-9% mark, the company saw a healthy rise in shipments compared with the same period in 2023. Canalys tracks the growth as 6%, IDC calculating a more optimistic 20.8% growth. Cupertino’s Mac manufacturer will post its most recent quarterly report on August 1.
Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Device Trackers, added: “Plenty of market hype around AI PCs and a less sexy but arguably more important commercial refresh cycle, seems to be what the PC market needed.”
Looking ahead, both analyst companies are predicting spiked interest later this year when Apple’s anticipated AI-enhanced hardware is met with similar noise from Qualcomm, Intel and AMD around both consumer and commercial AI PCs.