PC Market Continues to Rebound With Apple, Acer Leading the Way

The PC market continues to rebound with shipments for Apple MacBooks and Acer products driving much of the growth.  

In the second quarter, PC shipments increased 3% year-over-year, according to new data from research firm IDC. This marks the second quarter of definitive growth for the PC market following nearly two years of stagnation and declining demand. 

During Q2, vendors shipped 64.9 million units. Apple saw the biggest increase with 20.8% growth from a year ago. Acer came in second for growth at 13.7%. 

The 64.9 million figure is still far below what the PC market saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for home computing sent shipment volumes to 83.6 million in 2021 Q2. The PC market probably won’t reach those heights anytime soon. Still, IDC says demand for computing is starting to grow again in most parts of the world, including the US. 

“Weak results in China continued to hold the market back. Excluding China, worldwide shipments grew more than 5% year-over-year,” the research firm adds. 

IDC credited the rebound to the new hype around AI PCs and companies undergoing a refresh of commercial PCs at their offices. On the downside, prices for PCs have been going up due to retailers clearing out excess product inventory when demand was down in 2023. 

Rival research firm Gartner also reported the PC market growing in Q2, although at a slower 1.9% year-over-year rate. “With 7.8% sequential growth between 1Q24 and 2Q24, PC inventory is tracking back to an average level,” says Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. “We continue to see no major supply chain issues, allowing for the market to be perfectly set up for continued growth with major platform updates on the horizon.” 

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Gartner also provided numbers for the US market, which show Acer posting the most year-over-year growth in the quarter at 19.8%. Apple came in second with shipment volumes in the US increasing by 8.9% year-over-year. 

“The US PC market saw the highest shipment volume since the third quarter of 2022, with over 18 million PCs shipped resulting in 3.4% year-over-year growth,” Gartner says.

The research firm credits much of the demand to high sales to the government and education sectors. It also expects the US market to see “surging business PC demand” during the second half of this year amid the commercial refresh cycle.