Global PC shipments dropped 4.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, sliding to 68.2 million units and snapping a run of nine straight quarters of growth, according to fresh data from IDC. The culprit is the memory chip shortage that’s been squeezing the entire electronics industry—vendors pulled inventory forward as long as they could, and now that cushion is running out.What makes this slowdown unusual is that it isn’t hurting company balance sheets the way a typical demand slump would. IDC research director Jitesh Ubrani pointed to a widening gap between unit sales and dollar revenue, with shipments falling even as revenue climbs because price hikes are outrunning the drop in demand. Translation: fewer people are buying PCs, but everyone’s paying more for the ones that do sell, and manufacturers are pocketing the difference.
Memory crunch could stretch into 2027 and beyond
The shortage isn’t just about RAM either—storage components and broader geopolitical friction are adding to the pressure, according to IDC. Ubrani doesn’t expect relief until early 2028, and with macro conditions worsening, he’s ruling out another round of inventory pull-forward, which points to a sharper slowdown through the back half of 2026.Vendors are already bracing for a fresh round of price hikes in 2027, and retail channels are flagging concerns about carrying pricier stock for longer.
Apple bucks the trend with MacBook Neo momentum, but not without a price bump
Not every vendor is bleeding share. Lenovo held onto the top spot with 24.4% of the market despite a 2.1% shipment decline, while HP and Dell slipped 9% and 5% respectively. Apple was the outlier, growing shipments 10.1% to 6.7 million units and lifting its market share from 8.5% to 9.9%, largely on the back of its new MacBook Neo launch.IDC’s Jean Philippe Bouchard noted that Apple’s scale and supplier relationships have cushioned it from the same cost pressures battering smaller rivals—though the company hasn’t been spared the price hikes entirely, with entry-level Neo pricing edging up and the base MacBook Air now running notably higher. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook flagged the squeeze himself last month, noting memory suppliers are passing on steep increases just as consumer demand for devices holds up.That dynamic—big players using their buying power to lock up memory supply—is expected to accelerate consolidation in the PC market, with smaller manufacturers left scrambling for what’s left of the chip pipeline heading into next year.
