New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) The global PC shipments declined by 9 per cent (year-on-year) in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023 as the market continued to be weighed down by weak demand amid a slowdown in consumer and enterprise purchases, a new report showed on Tuesday.

Lenovo’s shipments saw a single-digit percentage (year-on-year) decline in Q3, outperforming most PC OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) except HP, whose Q3 shipments registered mid-single-digit (year-on-year) growth in percentage terms as the company benefitted from robust consumer and educational demand., according to Counterpoint Research.

Other tier 1 PC vendors such as Dell, Apple and Asus struggled to find strong shipment drivers to boost shipments across the board.

According to the researchers, AI PC has emerged as the next big thing and will likely drive the next wave of shipment rebound in 2024.

"We reiterate that the PC market has already bottomed out and are expecting gentle shipment recovery along with several new product launches over the next couple of months, especially from AI function-enabled models," the researchers said.

They expect AI PCs to have a 50 per cent 10-year CAGR from 2020 and dominate the PC market after 2026 with an expected penetration rate of more than 50 per cent.

"Intel, Qualcomm and other PC CPU makers are working closely with PC OEMs toward next-generation mainstream models and we expect to see a lot of new product launches after Q4 2023, marking a new chapter for the PC industry," the researchers stated.

In addition, the researchers expect that the global PC market's shipment volume is projected to rebound to pre-Covid-19 levels next year, aided by the Windows 11 replacement, the next wave of Arm PCs, and AI PCs.