Global personal computer shipments fell 20.1 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026 to 62.7 million units, marking the sharpest third-quarter decline on record, according to IDC. That compares to 78.5 million units in Q3 2025 and represents a 9.1 percent sequential drop from Q2 2026's 68.2 million units.
Desktop PC shipments, including workstations, declined 23.5 percent to 11.7 million units. Laptop shipments fell 20.6 percent to 46.4 million units, according to IDC. Omdia reported similar declines: overall shipments down 21.2 percent to 58.1 million units.
Memory and storage components now account for nearly 40 percent of the bill of materials for PC manufacturing, up from a typical 15 percent, according to Ben Yeh, principal analyst at Omdia. PC prices have increased more than fourfold during this period.
The surge in demand for high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM for AI workloads since 2025 has constrained manufacturing capacity available for consumer devices, including PCs, smartphones and gaming consoles.
Many PC vendors and sales channels increased inventory in the first half of 2026 in anticipation of memory price increases. That preemptive stocking suppressed Q3 demand, leaving channel partners concerned about excess inventory in a weakened market, said Jitesh Ubrani, IDC research director for consumer devices.
On the supply side, vendors and their original design manufacturer partners began reducing production in Q3 as channel partners worked through high inventory levels, said Ishan Dutt, Omdia research director. Increased upstream component costs have now fully cascaded to end-market pricing, forcing consumers and IT decision-makers to defer purchases, Dutt said.
Ubrani noted that larger quarterly declines occurred during the market's normalization from pandemic highs—Q4 2022 fell 28.2 percent and Q1 2023 dropped 28.7 percent.
