Global PC shipments fell 21.2% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2026, dropping to 58.1 million units as higher component costs and weakened demand weighed on the market, according to research firm Omdia.
Desktop shipments, including workstations, declined 23.5% to 11.7 million units, while laptop shipments, including mobile workstations, fell 20.6% to 46.4 million units. The decline followed sustained pull-forward activity in the first half of the year, Omdia research director Ishan Dutt said, adding that the drop aligned with warnings from major manufacturers during the previous earnings cycle, when they forecast double-digit falls in unit sales for the second half of 2026.
Retailers reported double-digit increases in average selling prices alongside falling sales, as higher component costs were passed on to consumers and business buyers. The cost share of DRAM and SSDs in PCs rose sharply from around 15% to nearly 40%, with price increases more than fourfold, according to Omdia principal analyst Ben Yeh. Manufacturers and their production partners began cutting output in the third quarter, while distributors continued to work through high inventory levels.
Supply chain pressures intensified, with rising memory and storage costs compounded by shortages of processors, graphics cards and other integrated circuit components. Yeh warned that repeated price increases by computer manufacturers had yet to fully offset the additional costs, and that the pressures were likely to continue.
Omdia forecasts the PC market will contract by 24% in the fourth quarter of 2026, followed by a further 7% decline over the whole of 2027. Despite double-digit shipment declines among most leading manufacturers, the global rankings remained largely unchanged both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. Lenovo retained first place, shipping 14.9 million units and holding a 26% market share. HP ranked second, with shipments falling 31% to 10.3 million units, the steepest decline among the leading manufacturers. Its market share slipped to 18%, almost three percentage points below the level recorded a year earlier.
Dell remained third with 7.6 million units and a 13% share, while Apple held fourth place with 6.8 million units, an 11% annual decline. Apple nevertheless gained more than one percentage point of market share, as its premium positioning helped cushion the impact of higher prices. Asus completed the top five, recording the smallest decline among the leading manufacturers, with shipments of 5.4 million units and its market share rising to 9.3% year-on-year.
