Apple Inc’s PC shipments plunged 40.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, marking a tough start to the year for PC makers still grappling with a glut of unsold inventory.
Shipments by all PC makers combined slumped 29 percent year-on-year to 56.9 million units — and fell below the levels of early 2019 — as the demand surge driven by the COVID-19 pandemic-era remote work evaporated, International Data Corp (IDC) said in a report on Sunday.
Among the market leaders, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and Dell Technologies Inc registered drops of more than 30 percent, while HP Inc was down 24.2 percent. No major brand was spared from the slowdown, with Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) rounding out the top five with a 30.3 percent fall.
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The slowdown in consumer spending over the past year has led to double-digit declines in smartphone shipments and an accumulating glut among the world’s foremost memorychip suppliers.
Samsung Electronics Co, which provides memory chips for portable devices, as well as desktops and laptops, last week said it was cutting memory production after reporting its slimmest profit since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.
“Though channel inventory has depleted in the last few months, it’s still well above the healthy four to six week range,” IDC research manager Jitesh Ubrani said in the report. “Even with heavy discounting, channels and PC makers can expect elevated inventory to persist into the middle of the year and potentially into the third quarter.”
A silver lining is that the cooling demand is giving manufacturers the time and room “to make changes as many factories begin to explore production options outside China,” IDC said in the report.
The IDC researchers foresee a potential rebound for PC makers this year, driven by a combination of aging hardware that will need to be replaced and an improving global economy.
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