Overview
- Counterpoint Research reported that global PC shipments fell 21% year‑over‑year in Q3 2026 to about 57 million units, a figure published Thursday that underscores a sharp market contraction.
- The research house now projects an additional 27% year‑over‑year drop in Q4 2026 and says memory and SSD contract prices are likely to stay elevated into late 2026 and early 2027.
- Contract prices moved sharply in Q3 with 8GB DDR4 modules up about 24% quarter‑on‑quarter and 1TB NVMe SSDs up about 29%, and Counterpoint forecasts further RAM and SSD price gains in Q4 and Q1 2027.
- All major OEMs saw double‑digit declines in Q3 with HP down 31%, Dell down 25%, Lenovo down 23%, Apple down 11% and ASUS down 7%, with Apple and ASUS outperforming peers thanks to premium and differentiated products such as the MacBook Neo.
- Higher component costs are lengthening replacement cycles, cutting affordable configurations and pushing buyers toward refurbished or premium models while suppliers disagree on timing of relief with Counterpoint expecting easing by H1 2027 and Micron warning shortages could last into 2028.