Worldwide PC shipments fell 4.9% year over year in quarter two (Q2) of 2026 to 68.2 million units, according to IDC. However, Apple beat the trend.
Apple sold 6.7 million Macs in the second quarter for 9.9% global market share. That compares to sales of 6.1 million Macs and 8.5% market share in the second quarter of 2025.
Apple is now in fourth place among global PC makers, trailing Lenovo (24.4% market share), HP (19.1% market share), and Dell (13.6%). However, while Apple’s sales grew year-over-year in quarter two, Lenovo’s sales droop 2.1%, HP’s sales dropped 9%, and Dell’s sales dropped 5%. (Also note that IDC doesn’t count tablets in its tally of personal computers.)
The second quarter’s decline in PC shipments is the first decline after nine consecutive quarters of growth. A persistent memory chip shortage drove the reversal, pushing vendors to pull inventory forward as far as possible.
Why Shipments Fell
Beyond the memory supply crunch, other components such as storage, along with geopolitical issues, have continued to weigh on the market, according to IDC.
“The real story here is the disconnect between units and dollars: shipments are falling, but revenue is climbing because vendors are pushing through price increases faster than demand is dropping,” says Jitesh Ubrani, research director for consumer devices at IDC. “Given worsening macro conditions and a memory shortage that isn’t expected to ease until early 2028, we don’t expect another round of inventory pull-forward, which points to a sharp slowdown in growth rates in the second half of 2026. Vendors are bracing for further price hikes into 2027, and channels are already flagging concern about elevated inventory at these higher price points.”
Emerging Trends
Amid the decline, two additional underlying trends stand out, per IDC. The first is the growing risk that sustained cost pressure from the memory shortage could temper the broader PC upgrade cycle, even as interest in on-device AI processing continues to grow amid rising cloud compute costs. The second is further vendor consolidation, as top brands such as Apple, Dell, and Lenovo use their scale across adjacent business lines, including smartphones and servers, to secure memory supply and squeeze out smaller competitors.
Vendor Rankings and Market Share
“As market conditions continue to worsen, the importance of supply chain management and capabilities are increasingly important. The largest vendors, with their buying power and long-standing supplier ties, are best positioned to take share from smaller rivals,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, vice president for consumer devices at IDC. “Apple’s share gain coincided with its latest product launch, the MacBook Neo, and while the company did raise prices in line with the broader market, it still remains well positioned against rivals facing the same cost pressures.”
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