PC industry suffers worst sales drop in almost a decade

It’s been reported that worldwide PC shipments experienced the “sharpest decline in nine years” during the second quarter of 2022.

However, PC gamers shouldn’t worry as total sales are still well above pre-pandemic levels.

According to research and consulting firm Gartner, PC shipments totalled 72 million units in 2022’s second quarter, a 12.6 per cent decline from the same period in 2021 and the “sharpest decline in nine years.”

Another research firm, IDC, reported the second quarterly drop in a row, following a 15.3 per cent fall in sales this quarter. It’s apparently the worst quarterly drop since it began tracking the market in the mid-1990s. The different numbers come from a discrepancy in how the two firms report on Apple products.

The decline is being blamed on geopolitical, economic and supply chain challenges.

“The decline we saw in the first quarter of 2022 has accelerated in the second quarter, driven by the ongoing geopolitical instability caused by the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, inflationary pressure on spending and a steep downturn in demand for Chromebooks,” said Gartner’s research director Mikako Kitagawa in a statement.

“Supply chain disruptions also continued, but the major cause of PC delivery delays changed from component shortages to logistics disruptions. Enterprise buyers continued to experience longer PC delivery times than usual, but the lead times began to improve by the end of the second quarter, partially because key cities in China reopened in the middle of the quarter,” with COVID restrictions easing.

“To maintain profits as inflation increases costs, the PC industry is having to raise average selling prices (ASPs) despite weakening demand,” Kitagawa added.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. According to IDC, its 71.3 million Q2 sales figure for PC sales isn’t far below the initial pandemic level of 74.3 million from Q2 2020. It’s also well above the 62.1 million and 65.1 million estimated sales from Q2 of 2018 and 2019 respectively.

In other news, the schedule for FarmCon 22 has been revealed, with the two-day celebration of all things Farming Simulator set to take place next week in Germany and on Twitch.