Apple’s global PC shipment tumble in Q3, Lenovo leads the pack: Canalys

Lenovo (OTCPK:LNVGY) (OTCPK:LNVGF) led the market for global PC shipments in the third quarter of 2024, followed by HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) and Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL), according to research firm Canalys.

The global PC market grew year-over-year for a fourth consecutive quarter, with total shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations rising 1.3% to 66.4M units.

“Although growth in Q3 was modest, the PC market recovery is now well underway with a number of positive signals indicating stronger performance in the coming quarters,” said Ishan Dutt, principal analyst at Canalys.

Notebook shipments (including mobile workstations) grew 2.8% to 53.5M, while desktop shipments (including desktop workstations) declined 4.6% to 12.9 million units.

“The uptick in demand has been especially strong from businesses, which now have just a year to upgrade their fleets to Windows 11 and avoid paying extended support fees,” Dutt added. “The launch of the latest-generation AI PC processors from Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD) and Qualcomm (QCOM) is also strengthening the value proposition of upgrading an old PC.”

Lenovo was the top vendor in the third quarter, shipping 16.49M units worldwide, growing 2.8% year-on-year. HP came in second, with sales almost flat (+0.4%) year-on-year at 13.57M units.

Dell held onto third position but saw its shipments fall 4% year-on-year to 9.84M units. Asus took the fourth place, boasting the highest growth among the top vendors with a 15.8% year-on-year increase.

Apple (AAPL) rounded out the top five with 5.11M Macs shipped, but saw a 17.5% decline year-over year.

Canalys noted that the next 12 months are set for continued strong growth as a large proportion of the Windows PC installed base still needs to be refreshed before the end of life of Windows 10 in October 2025.

Dutt noted that commercial procurement is expected to remain high throughout the rest of this year, with 54% of channel partners surveyed by them expecting growth in their PC business in the second half of 2024, compared with the same period last year. “Consumer demand has not been as strong, but the 2024 holiday season is expected to bring significant promotional activity, which will help support modest growth toward the end of this year,” Dutt commented.