The PC market gathered momentum in Q2 2024, with worldwide shipments of desktops and notebooks up 3.4% year-on-year, reaching 62.8m units, said analyst house Canalys.
Shipments of notebooks (including mobile workstations) hit 50m units, growing 4%. Desktops (including desktop workstations), which constitute 20% of the total PC market, experienced a slight 1% growth, totalling 12.8m units.
The stage is now set for “accelerated growth”, said Canalys, as the refresh cycle, driven by the Windows 11 transition and AI PC adoption, “ramps up” over the next four quarters.
“The PC industry is going from strength to strength with a third consecutive quarter of growth,” said Ishan Dutt, principal analyst at Canalys. “The market turnaround is coinciding with exciting announcements from vendors and chipset manufacturers, as their AI PC roadmaps transition from promise to reality.”
The quarter culminated with the launch of the first Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon processors, and more clarity around Apple’s AI strategy, with the announcement of the Apple Intelligence suite of features for the Mac, iPad and iPhone.
“Beyond these innovations, the market will start to benefit even more from its biggest tailwind - a ramp-up in PC demand driven by the Windows 11 refresh cycle,” added Dutt.
“The vast majority of channel partners surveyed by Canalys in June, indicated that Windows 10 end-of-life is likely to impact customer refresh plans most, in either the second half of 2024 or the first half of 2025, suggesting that shipment growth will only gather steam in upcoming quarters.”
