PC shipments predicted to decline 9.5% this year; can Apple beat the trend?

Worldwide PC [personal computer] shipments are on pace to decline 9.5% this year, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. 

The PC market is expected to experience the steepest decline of all device segments this year. However, the Sellers Research Group (that’s me) thinks Apple’s Mac and iPad products will beat this trend.

“A perfect storm of geopolitics upheaval, high inflation, currency fluctuations and supply chain disruptions have lowered business and consumer demand for devices across the world and is set to impact the PC market the hardest in 2022,” says Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner. “Consumer PC demand is on pace to decline 13.1% in 2022 and will plummet much faster than business PC demand, which is expected to decline 7.2% year over year.”

From a regional perspective, Gartner predicts that the EMEA PC market is forecast to record a 14% decline in 2022, driven by lack of consumer PC demand. The Russian Invasion of Ukraine, price increases and unavailability of products due to of lockdowns in China are significantly impacting consumer demand in the region.

Overall, global shipments of total devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) are on pace to decline 7.6% in 2022, with Greater China and Eastern Europe including Eurasia recording double-digit declines.

I don’t expect Mac and iPad (or even iPhone) sales to grow significantly this year due to the factors Gartner mentions. However, I think the sales of all Apple products will remain stable or even increase slightly.