The end of the pandemic boom and rising global inflation have caused PC shipments to continue to decline for the past few years, but compared to this time last year, the industry has seen a slight increase in shipments. The increase is very small, only 1.5%, but the recovery is expected to continue through 2024 as each major PC vendor launches new products to promote the AI PC year.

This good news is reported by International Data Corporation (IDC), which regularly monitors shipments for its worldwide PC device tracking service. during the first three months of 2023, an estimated 58.9 million systems shipped worldwide in the first three months of 2023, compared to 59.8 million systems shipped worldwide in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 1.53%.

This doesn't sound like much to celebrate, but given that shipments had previously been declining, anything that goes the other way is a positive: PC shipments in Q1 2023 fell by about 29%, the lowest drop in technology history.

However, analysts have also observed declining inflation in many countries, suggesting that this is part of the reason for increased shipments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Contrary to that trend is China, where demand for new PCs is still low.

The biggest winners in the turnaround in PC shipments were, in order of growth, Apple, Acer, and Lenovo. In contrast, Asus and Dell saw a decline in shipments compared to 2023, but the decline was much smaller.

This year will see the launch of all kinds of new PC hardware and software from all major tech vendors, with the entire industry betting on AI PCs to begin a larger growth cycle (which is what the phrase actually means, see below). And that is despite IDC's prediction that these new devices will be more expensive than previous models. [Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers at IDC, "As shipments grow, AI PCs are expected to become more expensive, providing additional opportunities for PC and component makers." He stated.

"The AI PC will be a key driver for the mobile device industry," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.

There is no doubt that the industry thoroughly expects the general public to readily buy into the upcoming technology, but if the claims about the benefits of AI PCs prove to be largely unrealistic, PC shipment growth may not be sustainable.

While it will certainly start out strong initially as buyers get caught up in the AI hype train, the industry could face a further downturn in shipments and sales once the fervor dies down and reality sets in.

Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see how this all turns out.