PC Market Share Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Alex Rivera | Last updated: July 1, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.
Quick Answer:
Lenovo holds 25.2% of the global PC market as of Q1 2026, per IDC, with HP second at 18.5% and Dell third at 15.7%. The global PC market shipped 65.6 million units in Q1 2026, up 2.5% year-over-year — but both IDC and Gartner warn the full year will contract sharply, with IDC projecting an 11.3% decline driven by a memory-price crisis.
Key Findings
- Lenovo commands 25.2% of worldwide PC shipments in Q1 2026, per IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker (April 2026) — the widest gap between the market leader and number two (HP at 18.5%) since Q3 2022.
- HP is the only top-5 vendor that lost units year-over-year in Q1 2026, down 4.9% to 12.1 million shipments, as supply-chain exposure to DRAM shortages hit its lower-margin product mix hardest.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research’s analysis of IDC and Gartner data, a combined PC Market Share Displacement of 2.2 percentage points changed hands among the top-5 vendors in Q1 2026 — 47% more share redistribution than the 1.5pp displacement recorded across the whole of FY2025 (see PC Market Share Displacement Index™ below).
- Global PC shipments will decline an estimated 11.3% in full-year 2026, per IDC, the steepest annual drop in over a decade — driven entirely by a 130% surge in DRAM and NAND prices that Gartner has labeled “memflation.”
- AI PCs are projected to account for 54.7% of global PC shipments in 2026, per Gartner, yet rising memory costs have pushed Gartner to warn that 50% AI PC market penetration may slip to 2028 rather than arriving in 2026 as originally forecast.
PC Market Share Displacement Index™ (PCMDI™)
Proprietary metric by Axis Intelligence Research. CC BY 4.0.
Aggregate share-movement figures — total shipments up or down — mask the actual competitive intensity inside a market. The PC Market Share Displacement Index™ (PCMDI™) corrects for that blind spot by measuring how many percentage points of market share physically changed hands among the top-5 vendors in a given period, adjusted to avoid double-counting winners and losers.
Formula: PCMDI™ = Σ |ΔShare_i| ÷ 2, where ΔShare_i is each vendor’s share change versus the same period prior year.
Methodology: Vendor market share figures sourced from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker (primary). Share changes are calculated in percentage points (pp). The divisor of 2 eliminates double-counting: every point gained by one vendor is lost by another, so summing both sides and halving gives net displacement. Scope: top-5 global vendors by shipment volume.
| Period | PCMDI™ Score | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 vs. Q1 2025 | 2.2 | 2.2pp of global PC market share changed hands in one quarter |
| FY2025 vs. FY2024 | 1.5 | 1.5pp changed hands across the full calendar year 2025 |
What PCMDI™ 2.2 means in practice: In a single quarter, the equivalent of roughly 1.4 million units per percentage point of displaced share — or about 3.1 million units in aggregate — moved from declining vendors to gaining ones. HP absorbed the entire loss (-1.6pp); Lenovo (+1.1pp), ASUS (+0.7pp), Apple (+0.5pp), and Dell (+0.5pp) each gained. This level of displacement in one quarter, with the market still growing modestly, signals that the supply-chain stress of 2026 is already reshaping the competitive landscape before the full contraction hits in Q2 and beyond.
Cite this metric: Axis Intelligence Research. (2026, July 1). PC Market Share Displacement Index™ (PCMDI™). Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/pc-market-share/ — CC BY 4.0.
Global PC Market Share by Vendor 2026
The most recent publicly available data comes from the Q1 2026 releases by both IDC (April 9, 2026) and Gartner (April 10, 2026). The two firms use slightly different methodologies and scope definitions, producing different total volumes — IDC reported 65.6 million units and Gartner reported 62.8 million — but both tell the same story on rankings and competitive direction.
Q1 2026 Vendor Rankings (IDC)
| Rank | Vendor | Q1 2026 Units (M) | Q1 2026 Share | Q1 2025 Share | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lenovo | 16.5 | 25.2% | 24.1% | +8.6% |
| 2 | HP Inc. | 12.1 | 18.5% | 20.1% | −4.9% |
| 3 | Dell | 10.3 | 15.7% | 15.2% | +7.7% |
| 4 | Apple | 6.2 | 9.5% | 9.0% | +9.1% |
| 5 | ASUS | 4.8 | 7.2% | 6.5% | +17.1% |
| — | Others | ~15.7 | 23.9% | 25.1% | — |
| — | Total | 65.6 | 100% | — | +2.5% |
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, April 9, 2026 (preliminary). Figures are subject to revision.
Alex Rivera, Consumer Tech Editor: The HP number is the data point that will define strategy conversations for the next six months. A 4.9% unit decline in a quarter where the overall market still grew — that’s not macroeconomics, that’s an exposure problem. HP publicly disclosed on its Q1 2026 earnings call that memory now accounts for 35% of its PC bill of materials, nearly double the 15–18% it represented the previous quarter. That’s not a headwind, it’s a direct margin tax on the parts of their catalog that can least afford it. Every low-margin consumer unit becomes a liability when DRAM triples in price. The SKUs that made HP the US market leader — the Spectre x360 didn’t do it, the $549 Pavilion did — are exactly the ones now under assault.
Q1 2026 Vendor Rankings (Gartner)
Gartner’s Q1 2026 data, released April 10, 2026, shows 62.8 million units and 4% YoY growth — an apparent discrepancy from IDC’s 65.6 million and 2.5% that stems from Gartner’s more conservative scope (it excludes some form factors IDC captures). Both firms agree on the ranking order and directional story.
Key Gartner Q1 2026 findings:
- Lenovo led shipments and increased market share year-over-year
- HP retained the #2 position but lost market share
- Dell increased market share
- Apple recorded the strongest growth among major vendors at 12.7% year-over-year, driven by MacBook Neo demand — versus IDC’s 9.1% figure for the same vendor, reflecting methodology scope differences
- ASUS overtook Acer to claim the #5 global position
Rishi Padhi, Research Principal at Gartner, described the Q1 result plainly: “The 4% year-over-year PC shipment growth in the first quarter of 2026 was artificially inflated. It was not due to genuine demand, but instead because of vendors’ and channel distributors’ increase of inventory levels ahead of expected price hikes.”
Full Year 2025 vs. 2024: The Baseline That Frames 2026
Before reading any 2026 data, the 2025 baseline matters. The PC market’s 2025 rebound was real but partly artificial — driven by Windows 10 end-of-support (October 14, 2025), enterprise refresh waves, and pre-tariff inventory pull-forward in the US.
| Vendor | FY2025 Units (M) | FY2025 Share | FY2024 Share | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo | 73.57 | 27.2% | 25.5% | +17.6% |
| HP Inc. | 57.46 | 21.3% | 21.6% | +8.3% |
| Dell | ~41.1 | 15.2% | 16.1% | +5.2% |
| Apple | ~24.8 | 9.2% | 9.2% | +10.3% |
| ASUS | ~17.5 | 6.5% | 7.1% | est. +8% |
| Acer | ~16.5 | 6.1% | 6.9% | est. −1% |
| Total | 270.22 | 100% | — | +9.1% |
Source: Gartner, January 20, 2026 (full-year 2025 preliminary). Lenovo, HP, Apple units confirmed. Dell, ASUS, Acer derived from share percentages and total.
Lenovo’s 2025 performance deserves a moment. At 73.57 million units shipped, every fourth PC sold globally in 2025 was a Lenovo. Its 27.2% worldwide share is the highest single-brand concentration the PC market has seen since HP briefly touched similar territory in 2012. Whether that concentration persists through 2026’s contraction — when vendors with broader supply-chain optionality will have an advantage — is the question worth watching.
PC Market Share Statistics by Region (Q1 2026)
IDC’s regional breakdown for Q1 2026 reveals a market that isn’t declining uniformly — it’s fracturing.
| Region | Q1 2026 YoY Growth | Key Driver |
|---|---|---|
| Americas | −3.3% | Tariff shock, demand saturation, consumer caution |
| EMEA | +7.4% | Windows 10 EOS migration, education sector demand |
| Asia Pacific (incl. Japan, China) | +4.3% | Japan GIGA education program, enterprise refresh |
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, April 2026.
The Americas number is the one that should alarm PC vendors most. It’s the highest-margin geography. A 3.3% decline in Q1, when the rest of the world was still pulling inventory forward — that’s not a seasonal blip. IDC senior research analyst Isaac Ngatia flagged the compounding problem: disrupted Asia-EMEA sea corridors (ongoing Middle East conflict), rising air freight costs, and consumer spending pullback are all hitting simultaneously. North American brands like HP and Dell, whose US commercial exposure is high, face the sharpest Q2-and-beyond risk.
United States PC Market Share
In the US market specifically, the competitive dynamic differs from the global picture. HP has historically led US shipments, with Dell a close second. Gartner’s Q1 2025 US data showed HP at 25.1% domestic share, Dell at 23.9% — a very different picture from the global rankings where Lenovo leads by a wide margin. Lenovo’s US commercial penetration remains below its global share, reflecting the stronger brand equity of domestic-heritage vendors in enterprise procurement.
PC Market Share Statistics by Operating System (2026)
PC market share by vendor is one lens. The OS lens tells a different story — particularly relevant for enterprise buyers choosing platforms, developers targeting environments, and AI PC vendors deciding which ecosystem to optimize for.
| OS | Desktop/Laptop Share (June 2026) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | 62.16% | StatCounter / Wikipedia, June 2026 |
| macOS | 14.58% | StatCounter / Wikipedia, June 2026 |
| ChromeOS | 1.42% | StatCounter / Wikipedia, June 2026 |
| Linux (desktop) | 3.09% | StatCounter / Wikipedia, June 2026 |
| Unknown/Other | 18.75% | StatCounter / Wikipedia, June 2026 |
Source: StatCounter Global Stats, as cited in Wikipedia “Usage share of operating systems,” June 2026.
For context on the “Unknown” category — StatCounter’s methodology assigns sessions it cannot definitively attribute to a labeled OS into this bucket, which disproportionately captures enterprise VPN traffic and non-standard browser agent strings.
Windows Version Distribution (Desktop, March 2025)
The transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is directly tied to PC replacement demand — and therefore to market share dynamics for every vendor in 2025–2026.
| Windows Version | Share (March 2025) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 10 | ~53.2% | End-of-support October 14, 2025 |
| Windows 11 | ~43.2% | Primary migration target |
| Windows 7 | ~2.5% | Legacy; security risk |
| Windows 8.x | <0.6% | Negligible |
Source: StatCounter, March 2025 (desktop Windows versions).
Windows 10’s end-of-support on October 14, 2025 was the single largest structural catalyst for PC replacement demand in 2024–2025. Gartner estimated at the time that up to 400 million devices could not upgrade to Windows 11 due to TPM 2.0, CPU, or Secure Boot hardware requirements. That cohort represents a compressed demand curve — buyers who face a genuine security imperative to replace — which enterprise IT departments largely acted on in 2024–2025. The refresh wave that drove the 9.1% full-year 2025 growth is largely exhausted. What’s left for 2026 is smaller organizations and consumers on slower budget cycles — the exact buyers most sensitive to a 17% price increase.
AI PC Market Share Statistics 2026
What Is an AI PC?
An AI PC — for the purposes of shipment tracking — is a desktop or laptop containing a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) or hardware block designed to accelerate on-device AI workloads. The definition was codified differently by each research firm: Canalys counts any device with a dedicated chipset for AI workloads; Microsoft’s own “Copilot+ PC” designation requires an NPU performing at ≥40 TOPS; Gartner’s AI PC classification aligns primarily with the Copilot+ threshold for commercial devices.
AI PC Market Share Projections
| Year | AI PC Share of Total PC Market | Units (est.) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 15.6% | ~38.2M | Gartner (August 2025) |
| 2025 | 31.0% | ~83.8M | Gartner |
| 2026 | 54.7% | ~133M (revised down) | Gartner (memflation-adjusted) |
| 2028 | ~70% | — | Canalys forecast |
Note: Gartner’s 2026 AI PC shipment figure was revised down from earlier projections due to memory-cost headwinds. The 54.7% share is maintained but applies to a shrinking total market.
AI PC Market Share by Vendor (2025, AI PC Segment)
The AI PC competitive landscape is structurally different from the overall market:
| Vendor | AI PC Market Share (2025) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | ~45% | Gartner (cited by TAdviser, 2026) |
| HP | ~14% | Gartner |
| Lenovo | ~15% | Gartner |
| Dell | ~9% | Gartner |
| ASUS | ~5% | Gartner |
| Acer / Huawei / Microsoft | ~3% each | Gartner |
Source: Gartner analysis as cited by TAdviser, April 2026. Figures rounded; total may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
Apple’s dominance in the AI PC segment (45% of the segment vs. roughly 9–10% of overall PC market) reflects its head start: the M-series silicon lineup has contained Apple’s Neural Engine since 2020, and the definition of “AI PC” used by Canalys and Gartner’s broader metrics captures the entire Mac laptop line. Every MacBook sold counts. No Windows laptop did until mid-2023, and qualifying Windows models didn’t reach volume until 2024.
Alex Rivera: The AI PC narrative is real, but “AI PC” means three different things depending on who you ask. A Copilot+ Surface Pro with a Snapdragon X Elite processes 45+ TOPS locally and actually runs inference. A $699 Lenovo IdeaPad with a basic NPU block checks the definition box and ships as an “AI PC.” Those aren’t the same product. The 54.7% market share projection for 2026 almost certainly includes both. When someone cites “AI PC market share,” worth asking: which definition, and how much of that shipped base has users who have actually run a local inference task? The number from Gartner that interests me more is the one about 50% AI PC market penetration slipping to 2028. That’s the honest signal about where the productivity use cases actually are.
Commercial vs. Consumer AI PC Split
Canalys projects commercial AI PC demand will account for approximately 60% of total AI PC shipments by 2027, compared to less than 40% in 2025. The commercial segment is where AI PC value propositions — on-device inference for security-conscious enterprises, extended battery via NPU offload, data-residency compliance — have genuine near-term ROI arguments. The consumer segment adoption curve is slower, partly because the AI features are less immediately visible and partly because the price premium (10–15% over standard spec, per Canalys) is harder to justify for entertainment-focused buyers.
PC Market Forecast 2026: Memflation and the Contraction
The 2026 PC market has a name for its dominant problem: memflation — Gartner’s term for the simultaneous surge in DRAM and NAND flash prices driven by memory fab capacity reallocation toward High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI accelerators.
The Numbers Behind the Contraction
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 PC shipment decline (Gartner) | −10.4% YoY | Gartner, February 26, 2026 |
| FY2026 PC shipment decline (IDC) | −11.3% YoY | IDC, February 26, 2026 |
| Q2 2026 PCD market forecast (IDC) | −8.9% YoY | IDC, April 2026 |
| DRAM + SSD price surge by end-2026 | +130% | Gartner, February 2026 |
| PC average selling price increase 2026 | +17% | Gartner |
| PC lifetime extension: business users | +15% by end-2026 | Gartner |
| PC lifetime extension: consumers | +20% by end-2026 | Gartner |
| Memory as share of PC BOM (2026) | ~23% | Gartner |
| Memory as share of PC BOM (2025) | ~16% | Gartner |
| HP Q1 2026 memory share of BOM | 35% | HP Q1 2026 earnings call |
| Entry-level (<$500) PC segment survival | At risk by 2028 | Gartner |
Sources: Gartner newsroom press release February 26, 2026; HP Q1 2026 earnings disclosure; IDC PCD forecast update, April 2026.
The mechanism is worth explaining once, clearly, because it matters for vendor market share. Samsung began HBM4 mass production in early 2026, pulling wafer starts away from commodity DDR5 production lines. AI accelerators require High Bandwidth Memory that consumes roughly three to four times the wafer capacity of standard DDR5 per gigabyte of output. With AI infrastructure spending still growing at 47% annually (Gartner, May 2026), the capacity reallocation is structural — not a temporary shortage correctable in one or two quarters. IDC does not expect prices to return to 2025 levels before 2028.
The practical result: a PC that cost $799 in January 2025 will average $935 by end-2026 based on Gartner’s 17% ASP increase. At $935, the buyer who was borderline in the $799 era doesn’t buy. The vendor that can secure DRAM supply at volume gains share; the one that can’t, loses units faster than the market average. This is exactly what the Q1 2026 data already shows in HP’s −4.9% shipment decline.
PC Market Size Statistics
Global PC Market Value
| Year | Estimated Market Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 (FY) | ~$271.4 billion | DataIntelo market research report |
| 2026 (FY, forecast) | Revenue +1.6% YoY (higher ASPs offset unit decline) | IDC |
| 2034 (forecast) | ~$412.7 billion | DataIntelo (4.8% CAGR) |
Note: Market value data from research reports should be treated as directional. IDC’s revenue +1.6% for 2026 is the most reliable near-term figure, given it comes from the same forecasting methodology used for unit shipment projections.
PC Market Shipments: Historical Trend
| Year | Global PC Shipments (M units) | YoY Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ~286.2 | −16.2% | IDC |
| 2023 | ~241.7 | −15.5% | IDC |
| 2024 | ~247.7 | +2.2% | Gartner |
| 2025 | 270.2 | +9.1% | Gartner, January 20, 2026 |
| 2026 (forecast) | ~239.4 | −11.3% | IDC forecast |
Sources: Gartner full-year 2025 data (January 20, 2026); IDC 2026 full-year forecast (April 2026); 2022–2024 from IDC historical data.
The trajectory matters: the 2022–2023 collapse was post-pandemic demand reversal. The 2024–2025 recovery was driven by Windows 10 EOS cycle and pre-tariff pull-forward. The 2026 contraction is a supply-cost shock with a different character — it compresses the affordable end of the market rather than reducing all segments equally.
PC Market Share: Desktop vs. Laptop Split (2025)
The form-factor split is relevant to market share because desktop and laptop categories favor different vendors.
| Segment | 2025 Share of PC Market | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Laptops / Notebooks | ~75–78% | Dominant category; AI PC transition concentrated here |
| Desktops | ~22–25% | Growing YoY in 2025; workstation segment rebounding |
| Workstations (mobile + DT) | 3–4% | IDC tracks separately; growing share |
In AI PCs specifically, Gartner reported in 2024 that the laptop segment had 19.4% AI PC penetration vs. only 3.8% for desktops — the NPU integration was pushed into thin-and-light laptops first, where battery efficiency gains from on-device inference justify the hardware cost. Desktop AI PC share is growing toward 2026 as platform silicon (Intel Core Ultra, AMD Ryzen AI) becomes mainstream across form factors.
Gaming PC Market Share Statistics
Gaming PCs occupy a distinct niche within the overall PC market, with a different vendor hierarchy than the mainstream commercial and consumer segments.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gaming PC and laptop hardware market size (2025) | >$48 billion | DataIntelo |
| Gaming laptops’ share of total laptop market | ~20% | IndustryResearch.biz, 2026 |
| Key gaming laptop vendors | ASUS ROG, Razer, MSI, Alienware (Dell) | Market research consensus |
| NVIDIA GPU market share (gaming) | ~94% | PC Gamer / GPU tracker (mid-2026) |
Sources: DataIntelo global PC market report 2025; IndustryResearch.biz laptop market report 2026.
ASUS ROG, Razer, MSI, and Alienware (Dell) control the high-performance gaming laptop segment between them. Lenovo’s Legion brand posted record market share gains in gaming laptops in December 2025, per its own disclosure. The gaming segment is notably more resilient to memflation’s entry-level pressure — $1,200–$2,500 gaming laptops absorb DRAM cost increases more easily than $549 mainstream notebooks — which partly explains why ASUS’s overall shipment growth (+17.1% in Q1 2026) outpaced all other top-5 vendors.
Axis Intelligence Research Methodology
Scope: This dataset covers shipments of desktop and laptop PCs equipped with Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS operating systems, consistent with Gartner’s and IDC’s standard PC market definition. Tablets, detachable tablets, and smartphones are excluded from vendor shipment share figures unless noted.
Primary sources: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker; Gartner quarterly PC shipment press releases; Gartner interim forecast analyses; HP Q1 2026 earnings disclosures; StatCounter Global Stats (OS share); Counterpointresearch.com (AI Advanced PC report).
Data compilation: Market share percentages and shipment units are drawn from IDC and Gartner primary press releases, each published within 60 days of the quarter-end. Where the two firms report different totals, both are cited with their methodological context. The PC Market Share Displacement Index™ (PCMDI™) is an original Axis Intelligence Research calculation applied to IDC-sourced vendor share data.
Limitations: Gartner and IDC figures are preliminary at initial publication and subject to revision. Regional breakdowns are available only at a high level (Americas, EMEA, Asia Pacific) in public IDC releases; country-level data is proprietary. AI PC market share figures by vendor are aggregated estimates from Gartner’s analysis, not directly reported by vendors.
Axis original element: The PC Market Share Displacement Index™ (PCMDI™) was calculated by Axis Intelligence Research for the first time for this article. It is not published in this form by IDC, Gartner, or any other market research firm. PCMDI™ for Q1 2026 = 2.2; for FY2025 = 1.5.
About This Dataset
Publisher: Axis Intelligence Research
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Format: Article + downloadable CSV
Update cadence: Relevance-driven. This article is revised when IDC or Gartner release new quarterly PC shipment data, when a major vendor ranking change of ≥2pp occurs, or when organic traffic signals indicate data staleness.
Snapshot date: Q1 2026 (data through April 2026). Full-year 2025 figures as of January 20, 2026 (Gartner).
Cite This Research
APA Axis Intelligence Research, & Rivera, A. (2026, July 1). PC market share statistics 2026: Vendors, OS & AI PC data. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/pc-market-share/
MLA Axis Intelligence Research, and Alex Rivera. “PC Market Share Statistics 2026: Vendors, OS & AI PC Data.” Axis Intelligence, 1 July 2026, https://axis-intelligence.com/pc-market-share/.
Chicago Axis Intelligence Research, and Alex Rivera. “PC Market Share Statistics 2026: Vendors, OS & AI PC Data.” Axis Intelligence, July 1, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/pc-market-share/.
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<p>Source: <a href="https://axis-intelligence.com/pc-market-share/" rel="dofollow">PC Market Share Statistics 2026</a> — Axis Intelligence Research (CC BY 4.0). PC Market Share Displacement Index™ (PCMDI™) is a proprietary metric by Axis Intelligence Research.</p>
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who has the largest PC market share in 2026?
Lenovo holds the largest PC market share in 2026, at 25.2% of worldwide PC shipments as of Q1 2026, per IDC. That translates to 16.5 million units shipped in Q1 alone — more than HP (12.1 million) and Dell (10.3 million) combined. Lenovo’s position is even stronger on the full-year 2025 basis, where its 27.2% share (Gartner) is the widest lead the company has held since becoming the global #1 vendor.
What is HP’s PC market share in 2026?
HP holds 18.5% of global PC shipments in Q1 2026, per IDC — down from 20.1% in Q1 2025. It remains the #2 global vendor by volume, but it is the only top-5 vendor that lost unit shipments year-over-year in Q1 2026, with a decline of 4.9%. HP’s exposure to consumer and entry-level products — where DRAM price increases bite hardest — explains much of the gap.
What is Apple’s PC market share in 2026?
Apple holds approximately 9.5% of global PC shipments in Q1 2026 per IDC (or roughly 10.3% per Gartner’s methodology). Apple grew 9.1–12.7% year-over-year in Q1 2026 — the fastest growth rate among major vendors — driven largely by demand for the MacBook Neo line, particularly in education. In the AI PC segment specifically, Apple commands approximately 45% market share (Gartner), reflecting the M-series Neural Engine’s head start over Windows NPU platforms.
Is the PC market growing or declining in 2026?
The PC market grew modestly in Q1 2026 — 2.5% per IDC, 4% per Gartner — but both firms characterized that growth as artificial, driven by inventory pull-forward ahead of memory price increases rather than genuine end-user demand. The full-year 2026 outlook is decisively negative: IDC projects −11.3% and Gartner projects −10.4%, the steepest annual decline in over a decade. The contraction is driven by a 130% surge in DRAM and NAND flash prices that Gartner calls “memflation,” which will raise average PC prices by approximately 17% in 2026 versus 2025 levels.
Why is the PC market declining in 2026?
The primary driver is memory-cost inflation. AI infrastructure spending has redirected semiconductor fab capacity toward High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators — with each gigabyte of HBM consuming three to four times the wafer area of standard DDR5. The result is a structural undersupply of consumer DRAM and NAND flash, with combined prices projected to rise 130% by end-2026 (Gartner). This raises average PC prices by 17%, suppresses demand especially at the entry level (<$500 segment), and extends device lifetimes by 15–20%. Geopolitical factors compound the picture: Middle East conflict is disrupting Asia-EMEA sea corridors and raising freight costs across the supply chain (IDC, April 2026).
What is ASUS’s PC market share in 2026?
ASUS holds 7.2% of global PC shipments in Q1 2026 per IDC — up from 6.5% in Q1 2025 — and its 17.1% unit growth was the fastest of any top-5 vendor in the quarter. ASUS overtook Acer to claim the #5 global ranking (Gartner, April 2026). Its strength in gaming laptops (ROG and TUF lines) and high-performance notebooks, segments less exposed to entry-level DRAM pressure, explains much of the relative outperformance.
What is Dell’s PC market share in 2026?
Dell holds 15.7% of global PC shipments in Q1 2026 per IDC, up from 15.2% in Q1 2025. Its 7.7% unit growth was the second-fastest in the top-5 behind ASUS. Dell’s stronger commercial and enterprise exposure — versus HP’s heavier consumer mix — insulates it somewhat from entry-level DRAM pressure, since enterprise buyers with active refresh cycles are less price-elastic at the $1,000–$1,500 business laptop level.
What is the Windows PC market share in 2026?
Windows accounts for approximately 62.2% of desktop and laptop PC usage worldwide as of June 2026, per StatCounter data cited by Wikipedia. That headline figure has declined from earlier years as macOS gains share — macOS reached 14.6% desktop/laptop usage share by June 2026. In PC shipment terms, Windows remains the dominant platform by a wide margin; Gartner’s PC shipment tracking covers Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS machines together, with Windows machines constituting the vast majority of the 270 million units shipped in 2025.
What percentage of PCs will be AI PCs in 2026?
Gartner projects AI PCs will account for 54.7% of global PC shipments in 2026, up from 31% in 2025 and 15.6% in 2024. However, Gartner has also warned that memflation is delaying the 50% market-penetration milestone for AI PCs to 2028, as rising memory costs push AI PC prices above the threshold that triggers mainstream replacement demand. The AI PC share by vendor differs sharply from the overall market: Apple leads with approximately 45% of AI PC shipments (2025 data, Gartner), while HP, Lenovo, Dell, and ASUS collectively account for much of the Windows AI PC base.
How does PC market share differ in the US vs. globally?
The US market shows a different competitive dynamic than the global one. Gartner’s Q1 2025 US data showed HP leading with 25.1% domestic share, with Dell second at 23.9% — both significantly ahead of their global rankings. Lenovo leads globally at 25.2% in Q1 2026, but its US commercial penetration is considerably lower. Apple holds roughly 28–30% of the US laptop market by revenue (driven by premium pricing and strong student/professional demand), a much larger US revenue footprint than its global unit share of ~9.5% suggests.
What is the PC market share Displacement Index?
The PC Market Share Displacement Index™ (PCMDI™) is an original Axis Intelligence Research metric that measures how many percentage points of market share changed hands among the top-5 PC vendors in a given period. It is calculated as: Σ |ΔShare_i| ÷ 2, using IDC vendor share data. A PCMDI™ of 2.2 for Q1 2026 (vs. 1.5 for all of FY2025) signals that competitive recomposition inside the PC market accelerated sharply in the first quarter of 2026 — before the full memflation contraction has even arrived.