Global PC shipments collapsed 21.2 percent year over year to 58.1 million devices in Q3 2026, the steepest decline since Q1 2023, according to Omdia. IDC reported a similar 20.1 percent drop to 62.7 million units—the largest third-quarter decline the firm has recorded.
Desktop shipments fell 23.5 percent to 11.7 million units. Laptops dropped 20.6 percent to 46.4 million units. The quarter also underperformed Q2 2026 sequentially, declining 9.1 percent despite Q3 typically seeing seasonal strength.
The culprit: memory prices. Surging demand from AI infrastructure—specifically high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM needed for data center workloads—has consumed foundry capacity, starving the consumer PC supply chain. Memory and storage now represent nearly 40 percent of a PC's bill of materials, up from a historical 15 percent. End-user prices have risen more than fourfold as a result.
Vendors front-loaded inventory earlier in 2026 to beat anticipated price hikes. When those hikes materialized and demand dried up, channel partners were left holding excess stock at elevated costs. Vendors and their manufacturing partners responded by cutting Q3 production.
"The impact of upstream component cost increases has fully translated to end-market pricing, leading consumers and IT decision-makers to reduce purchases," said Ishan Dutt, research director at Omdia.
Jitesh Ubrani, research director for consumer devices at IDC, said channels remain concerned about inventory bloat. Promotional pricing may offer brief relief, but he expects component costs to stay high and not fall to year-ago levels. Macroeconomic headwinds could worsen the outlook ahead.
IDC projects only modest, temporary PC price relief in coming quarters. The structural squeeze on consumer device manufacturing from AI infrastructure buildouts shows no sign of easing.
