PC Market Runs Low on RAM to Grow: Shipments Decline 4.9% as Memory Crunch Bites, according to IDC.  - IDC

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global PC shipments 2026<br>July 8, 2026

Jitesh Ubrani,<br>Jean Phillippe Bouchard

PC Market Runs Low on RAM to Grow: Shipments Decline 4.9% as Memory Crunch Bites, according to IDC.

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BOSTON, July 8, 2026  – Worldwide PC shipments fell 4.9% year over year in Q2 2026 to 68.2 million units, according to IDC — 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.

“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,” said 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. 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."

Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Traditional PC Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q2 2026 (Preliminary results, shipments are in millions of units) Company 2Q26 Shipments 2Q26 Market Share 2Q25 Shipments 2Q25 Market Share 2Q26/2Q25 Growth 1. Lenovo 16.6 24.4% 17.0 23.7% -2.1% 2. HP Inc 13.0 19.1% 14.3 19.9% -9.0% 3. Dell Technologies 9.3 13.6% 9.8 13.6% -5.0% 4. Apple 6.7 9.9% 6.1 8.5% 10.1% 5. ASUS 5.0 7.4% 5.0 7.0% 0.2% Others 17.5 25.7% 19.6 27.3% -10.5% Total 68.2 100.0% 71.7 100.0% -4.9% Source: IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, July 8, 2026

Notes:

IDC declares a statistical tie in the Personal Computing Device market when there is a difference of one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) or less in the shipment of shares among two or more vendors. Traditional PCs include Desktops, Notebooks, and Workstations, and do not include Tablets or x86 Servers. Detachable Tablets and Slate Tablets are part of the Personal Computing Device Tracker but are not addressed in this press release.

Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the company/brand under which they are sold.

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker gathers detailed market data in over 90 countries. The research includes historical and forecast trend analysis, among other data. For more information or to subscribe to the research, please contact Jackie Kliem at 508-988-7984 or jkliem@idc.com.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the technology intelligence layer of the AI economy. A global leader in research and data for more than 60 years, IDC’s expert analysts, proprietary datasets, and rigorous methodologies are trusted by business and IT leaders to guide critical business strategies and IT investments. Today, that intelligence is built into the tools and workflows where work gets done with IDC Quanta, making work sharper, teams faster, and businesses harder to beat.

Visit www.idc.com, subscribe to the IDC blog, or follow IDC on X and LinkedIn for the latest industry insights.

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