The latest Canalys data shows that worldwide personal computer (including tablet) shipments fell just 3% annually in quarter (Q1) 2022, to 118.1 million units. In the total PC market (including Macs and iPads), Apple took first place from Lenovo as it shipped 22.3 million units in Q1 2022, up 1% annually.
Apple saw a 2% fall in shipments in Q1 as it shipped 14.9 million iPads worldwide. (Canalys, unlike the IDC and Gartner research groups, counts iPads in its tally of Apple personal computers.)
Second-place Samsung also posted a 2% decline for a total of 7.9 million tablets shipped. For the first time in over a year, Amazon surpassed Lenovo to take third place with a growth of 3% on the back of heavy discounting of its Fire tablets.
Lenovo endured the second biggest decline of the top five vendors, with its shipments down 20% year on year to 3 million units. Huawei rounded out the top five, with a 22% decline and 1.7 million tablets shipped globally.
Despite the year-over-year dip in personal computer sales, shipments remain extremely strong compared with before the pandemic, with a three-year compound annual growth rate of 12% from Q1 2019, according to Canalys. The research group says that, while commercial demand is healthy, the slowdown in consumer and education has taken its toll on Chromebooks and tablets, both of which suffered further shipment declines.
Tablet numbers fell 3% year on year to 38.6 million units, while Chromebooks dipped to 4.9 million units, a 60% fall from their record performance in Q1 2021.
AFT.
I remember when such reports included PC tablets and explicitly excluded iPads … because Apple winning wasn’t an approved narrative and iPads aren’t computers but Kindles are. Good times.