News PC Sales Remain Above Pre-Pandemic Levels Despite Recent Declines

[Admin]

Apple surges and is the only gainer in terms of both PC market share and shipments; HP suffers the worst decline among Windows device makers.

PC Sales Remain Above Pre-Pandemic Levels Despite Recent Declines : Read more

 

[InvalidError]

What must be softening the return to pre-pandemic sales decline must be the people and companies who were somewhat overdue for upgrades but couldn't afford doing so with mid-pandemic pricing deciding to do so now.

 

[waltc3]

It's interesting because certainly there are more people than ever who are building their own box with hand-picked components in 2022. This number is easily in the tens of millions, but never makes these estimates...

 

[spongiemaster]

It's interesting because certainly there are more people than ever who are building their own box with hand-picked components in 2022. This number is easily in the tens of millions, but never makes these estimates...

More people are doing a lot of things more than ever since there are a lot more people than ever. Even if the number is that high, which I doubt, it is dwarfed by the OEM market. An estimated 340-350 million PC's were sold in 2021.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

More people are doing a lot of things more than ever since there are a lot more people than ever. Even if the number is that high, which I doubt, it is dwarfed by the OEM market. An estimated 340-350 million PC's were sold in 2021.

According to IDC's figures, the number is 347 million. So far, 2022 is on track for around 301 million, but Q4 sales are almost always substantially higher which means the final tally will probably be in the 320-325 million range. Still 8~10% less than 2021, but also 6~8% higher than 2020 and 20~22% higher than 2019.

 

[waltc3]

More people are doing a lot of things more than ever since there are a lot more people than ever. Even if the number is that high, which I doubt, it is dwarfed by the OEM market. An estimated 340-350 million PC's were sold in 2021.

Number was at least ten million PCs custom built by consumers, ~10 years ago. I threw that out here as the bare minimum estimate. More people than ever know how to build their own boxes--and/or upgrade them piecemeal these days--and the market for peripherals sold separately is gigantic--take a look at Amazon and Newegg. "PC Part Picker" didn't exist a few years ago, and you can buy programs available on Steam and elsewhere to show you how to build a system--which are nice resources for n00bs these days. When I was a n00b, it was 100% flying by the seat of your pants.

I'm not really sure what your point is. For instance, I haven't bought an OEM system since 1995--last system I ordered was a Micron for ~$4700. "Rolling my own" is far better... The only point to be made is that systems built with cherry-picked components aren't ever estimated, but judging by the incredibly huge market for peripherals sold separately (motherboards, PSUs, CPUs,GPUs etc.) it must be huge. I'm not sure why you'd want to dispute that...? I can't really see a problem with pointing out the obvious--that millions of systems are never counted in this bunch. Could be 20-30 million these days--who knows? Estimates are between 1.5 billion and 2 billion people use computer tech globally every day now...

It's not just that there are "a lot more people," it's also that a lot more of them know how to assemble a PC from components than was true 20 years ago, etc.--it's about as difficult as Lego blocks, etc.

 

[spongiemaster]

I'm not really sure what your point is.

The DIY builders are a tiny percentage of the overall PC market. That's why nobody states numbers.

PC sales have been in decline for years until Covid. So assuming there's been a multifold increase in the DIY market while the over market has been in decline is peculiar. Not impossible, but certainly not likely.

 

[waltc3]

The DIY builders are a tiny percentage of the overall PC market. That's why nobody states numbers.

PC sales have been in decline for years until Covid. So assuming there's been a multifold increase in the DIY market while the over market has been in decline is peculiar. Not impossible, but certainly not likely.

Nah, I think it's more that they have no metric on which to estimate. So, I guess we will have agree to disagree...