PC market shows signs of recovery thanks to Apple's remarkable growth in Q2 2024

Global PC shipments rose by 3% for this year's second quarter, marking two consecutive quarters of growth after an alarming two years of decline. PC shipments hit 64.9 million units for the three months ending in June, which is great news for the industry as we head into the AI PC era. However, even though everyone's talking about and pushing AI, it sounds like regular PC sales are driving the growth, especially those from Apple.

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Top PC companies by market share, image credit: International Data Corporation (IDC).

According to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), Apple's shipments increased by 20.8% for the quarter, followed by Acer, whose shipments grew by 13.7%. Even though Apple saw significant growth, its market share of 8.8% sits below that of companies like Lenovo (22.7%), HP Inc. (21.2%), and Dell Technologies (15.5%).

Looking at the top five companies, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, and Acer, only Dell saw a 2.4% decline in shipments. With Microsoft's new Copilot+ PCs recently debuting and more AI-ready mobile hardware on the way from AMD and Intel later this year, it will be interesting to see what impact AI PCs have on global PC shipments.

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PC shipment breakdown, image credit: International Data Corporation (IDC).

Even though two-quarters of growth after two years of decline is a cause for celebration, the analysts at IDC aren't quite ready to bust out the champagne. The growth is partly due to a 'commercial refresh cycle' that sees businesses upgrading hardware according to financial year timelines.

"Make no mistake, the PC market, just like other technology markets, faces challenges in the near term due to maturity and headwinds," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Device Trackers. "However, two consecutive quarters of growth, combined with 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. The buzz is around AI, but a lot is happening with non-AI PC purchasing to make this mature market show signs of positivity."