Canalys, the analyst firm that tracks PC market data, has some good news at last.
PC shipments are still down year-on-year across the US, but the rate at which shipments are declining has shown signs of slowing down. In fact, Canalys reckons that the market could bounce back by the end of this year.
Don’t buy your new laptop just yet, though, because better news for buyers is just around the corner and you could save yourself a small fortune.
PC sales are showing signs of recovery
During the second quarter of 2023, US PC shipments were down 5.8% year-on-year to the tune of 18.2 million units.
Desktops suffered the most, with laptops faring reasonably well, accounting for 15.2 million units. Canalys puts part of this down to the return in demand for Chromebooks across education.
Principal Analyst at Canalys, Ishan Dutt, said: “A key area that helped drive volumes was the return of demand from education institutions, backed by the latest wave of federal funding, ahead of a licensing cost increase for ChromeOS.”
Chromebooks accounted for 4.7 million units or around 31% of the total laptop shipments.
The commercial sector was also noted to be holding up the market, with more consumers deprioritizing their spend on new devices amid continuing economic uncertainties.
Among the top five vendors, Apple saw the greatest year-on-year growth at 32.6%. A recent report found that businesses and employees are beginning to favor Macs more than their PC counterparts, which coincides with the latest shipment figures by Canalys.
In contrast, Acer sold 20.3% fewer devices in Q2 2023 compared with Q2 2022.
More broadly, the same trend is true of global PC shipments, with the decline showing signs of easing off, though fewer countries look to be spending as much as the US on PCs with the market seeing an 11.5% decrease year-on-year.
An emerging market might spell out the perfect opportunity to upgrade before demand returns, which could lead prices to increase. Hold off on your upgrade for now, though, because we think some bargains could be just around the corner as Black Friday approaches. Last year we saw some record-breaking deals, including more than $700 off some laptops.
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