Global PC shipments post steepest drop in years as memory-chip shortage bites

Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell 20.1 percent in the third quarter of 2026, the steepest quarterly decline the market has recorded in years and the second consecutive drop, according to preliminary data released Thursday by the research firm IDC. Vendors shipped 62.7 million traditional PCs globally in the quarter, down from 78.5 million a year earlier and a further 9.1 percent below the second quarter, an inversion of the usual seasonal pattern in which the third quarter normally outsells the second.

The slide is the clearest sign yet that a global shortage of computer memory chips, triggered largely by the data-center buildout for artificial intelligence, has moved out of chip-industry spreadsheets and into the machines people actually buy.

The numbers

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker found that no major vendor was spared, though some fared far worse than others. Lenovo kept the top spot with 14.9 million units shipped, a 22.6 percent drop from a year earlier, giving it 23.8 percent of the market. HP Inc. fell hardest among the leaders, shipping 10.3 million units, down 30.9 percent, for 16.5 percent share. Dell Technologies shipped 7.6 million units, down 25 percent. Apple shipped 5.9 million Macs, down 11.3 percent, the smallest decline of the top five vendors, and ASUS shipped 5.5 million units, down 8.6 percent.

• Total shipments: 62.7 million units, down 20.1% year over year and down 9.1% from the second quarter
• Lenovo: 14.9 million units, -22.6% YoY, 23.8% share (still No. 1)
• HP Inc.: 10.3 million units, -30.9% YoY, the steepest fall among major vendors
• Dell Technologies: 7.6 million units, -25.0% YoY
• Apple: 5.9 million units, -11.3% YoY, the smallest decline in the top five

IDC said Lenovo, HP and Dell each fell faster than the market as a whole and together ceded 4.2 percentage points of combined share, a result it attributed to those three vendors having stocked up most heavily earlier in the year.

How a chip shortage reached the laptop aisle

The proximate cause, per IDC, was not a sudden collapse in demand but a hangover from earlier excess. Facing a historic run-up in memory prices, PC makers and retailers front-loaded orders in the first half of 2026, pulling forward purchases that would normally have landed later in the year. That left channels sitting on inventory just as the usual third-quarter restocking cycle arrived, flattening what is typically the strongest shipment quarter of the year.

The underlying driver is a memory squeeze that chipmakers say shows no sign of easing. TrendForce, the Taiwan-based market research firm, has reported that DRAM manufacturers have been reallocating advanced production capacity toward server memory and high-bandwidth memory for AI systems, a shift that has squeezed supply available for ordinary PC and consumer products even as contract prices for conventional DRAM and NAND flash keep climbing quarter after quarter.

Micron Technology's own results illustrate the scale of the shift. In its fiscal fourth-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the chipmaker reported record quarterly revenue of $54.23 billion and full-year revenue of $133.19 billion, up from $37.38 billion the prior year, driven chiefly by sharply higher memory prices tied to AI-related demand rather than by selling more chips. Those prices are precisely what pushed PC makers to stockpile early and what IDC now says left the market with a hangover.

"What we're seeing is the result of the strong first-half pull-in. Vendors and channels loaded up on inventory early in the year to get ahead of price hikes, and that has thrown off the usual seasonality, where Q3 is typically larger than Q2," said Jitesh Ubrani, research director for consumer devices at IDC. "Channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand."

Who is affected

The pain is spread across the supply chain. PC makers now face bloated channel inventory and softer sell-through even as their own component costs stay elevated, squeezing margins from both directions. Retailers are left holding stock bought at pre-surge prices alongside newer, costlier units. And buyers, whether consumers replacing an aging laptop or businesses refreshing office fleets, are confronting list prices that remain well above where they stood a year ago, even after the heaviest run-up in memory costs has passed its peak. Coverage of the memory market earlier this year, including reporting by TechRadar, had already warned that RAM-driven cost increases would work their way into finished-product pricing through 2026, a prediction the latest shipment data appears to confirm.

What happens next

IDC expects the inventory overhang to produce some near-term relief in the form of promotions, as channels work to move excess stock, but it does not expect prices to return anywhere close to year-ago levels. The firm's larger worry is macroeconomic: with demand already soft at today's elevated prices, a further weakening of consumer and business spending could push the outlook for the next several quarters lower still, extending a downturn that, after nine consecutive quarters of growth, has now persisted for six straight months. TrendForce, for its part, has said memory suppliers continue to prioritize higher-margin server and AI customers over consumer electronics, suggesting PC makers will keep competing for a shrinking share of available chip supply well into 2027.