Market researchers: PC market continues to recover, Apple makes the biggest leap

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The PC market is continuing its recovery phase and continues to grow. In the second quarter of this year, global PC sales figures rose by 3% year-on-year. Apple in particular was able to significantly increase PC sales, but the Taiwanese Acer Group also recorded extraordinary growth. Lenovo remains the market leader, but the Chinese manufacturer's home market is still weakening and is holding back the re-emerging PC market somewhat.

After almost two years of falling sales figures due to a lack of demand and recession, the trend turned around at the beginning of this year. In the first quarter of 2024, the PC market almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, when almost 60 million desktop PCs and notebooks were sold at the start of the year. This continued in the spring, resulting in two consecutive quarters of growth.

According to preliminary findings from market researchers at IDC, 64.9 million PCs were sold in the second quarter of this year. This is 3% more than in the same period last year. However, it could have been even better, as the Chinese PC market continues to weaken. If IDC had not included China in the global sales figures, the PC market would have grown by 5 percent recently.

Boost in demand not unexpected

The continued growth is not unexpected. Initially, demand exploded in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that consumers and companies were stocked up on new PCs and did not need new systems for a while. This was followed by the economic recession in 2023, which led to PC buyers holding back. Now the PCs purchased during the pandemic are almost four years old and are likely to be gradually replaced. Added to this is the current hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI).

"Two consecutive quarters of growth, combined with a lot of market hype around AI PCs and a less exciting but arguably more important commercial refresh cycle, seems to be just what the PC market needed," explains IDC's Ryan Reith. "The hype is clearly around AI, but there's also a lot happening in non-AI PC purchases, which gives this mature market positive signs."

AI PCs, a reason for growth in the future

This is also reflected in the analysis of individual manufacturers. Apple recorded the highest growth among the five largest PC manufacturers at 20.8 percent, but has not yet offered "Apple Intelligence" with Macs and MacBooks, so AI is unlikely to have played a role here. The situation is likely to have been different for Acer, which recorded the second-largest growth at 13.7 percent. Acer already sells so-called AI PCs, as defined by Microsoft and Intel.

These are systems that have Windows 11 pre-installed, use a processor or graphics chip with an integrated AI accelerator and have a co-pilot key. The keyboard requirement is mainly fulfilled by notebooks; however, desktop PCs with upcoming processors will also be able to master AI skills in the future. They will then be able to run parts of Microsoft's Copilot locally, for example for text summaries.

Lenovo remains the market leader ahead of HP and Dell

Overall, the Chinese manufacturer Lenovo remains the market leader and recorded growth of 3.7 percent year-on-year. HP is still number two and was able to increase slightly, but Dell even had to accept a decline in sales figures. Apple and Acer won the last quarter and were able to increase their PC sales by a double-digit percentage. However, these two manufacturers had also seen above-average declines at the start of 2023.

PC-Verkäufe nach Hersteller (in Millionen Stück, Quelle: IDC)
Hersteller	2Q24 Verkäufe	2Q23 Verkäufe	2Q24 Marktanteil	Unterschied
1. Lenovo	14,7	14,2	22,7%	3,7%
2. HP Inc	13,7	13,4	21,1%	1,8%
3. Dell	10,1	10,3	15,5%	-2,4%
4. Apple	5,7	4,7	8,8%	20,8%
5. Acer	4,4	3,9	6,8%	13,7%
Andere	16,3	16,5	25,1%	-1,1%
Gesamt	64,9	63,1	100%	3,0%

(fds)