Shipments of personal computer makers combined slumped 29% to 56.9 million units in the first quarter, as per a market research firm IDC. This is below the levels of early 2019.
Among the global PC makers, Apple faced the steepest fall of 40.5%. As per Bloomberg, among the market leaders, Lenovo and Dell registered drops of more than 30%, while HP was down 24.2%. No major brand was spared from the slowdown, with Asustek Computer rounding out the top 5 with a 30.3% fall.
Post-pandemic, consumer spending has seen a drop which has led to double-digit declines in smartphone shipments and an accumulating glut among the world’s foremost memory chip suppliers. Following its lowest profit since the 2009, Samsung, last week announced a cut down in its memory production. Samsung has been providing memory for portable devices as well as desktop and laptop PCs.
As per Bloomberg, this drop in demand is giving the manufacturers time and room, to come up with changes as more companies are looking for options outside China. Apple too is looking to expand its base away from China as tensions between Washington and Beijing threaten its supply chain.