Reports of the PC's demise are oft exaggerated. But there's no getting away from the fact that sales shrank for eight consecutive quarters—or two years in old money—after the pandemic-fuelled sales boom. Things have not been good, peeps.
Happily, the latest figures for the paint a much brighter picture. Q2 saw PC sales grow 3% versus the same period in 2023. That follows a positive Q1 2024, , so this is more than just a blip.
Intriguingly, PC sales in China are down significantly. IDC didn't put a figure on China sales, but does say that if you take China out of the picture, volumes in the rest of the world grew by over 5%. Pretty healthy, then.
Indeed, Lenovo now makes some of the very best gaming laptops, with our fearless leader even opining that they had .
[[link]]
: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
: The right boards.
: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
: Get into the game ahead of the rest.
However, it also warned against heady optimism: "Make no mistake, the PC market just like other technology markets faces challenges in the near term due to maturity and headwinds," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Device Trackers.
It's a slightly mixed picture then, with the big brands winning, the rest of the market pretty flat, AI injecting some fizz into the market but broader trends and China simultaneously putting the brakes on.
As for what it all means for gaming PCs and gaming hardware, there's isn't any single obvious take away, other than the fact that the PC isn't going anywhere. It's a very mature technology platform and sales aren't about to explode. But equally, it's definitely not in terminal decline, either, even if the traditional desktop PC, including , is becoming something of a niche player in the market.