From PC World: According to one analyst firm, the combined shipment of desktop and laptop computers in 2024 was 245.3 million units. That’s a big number — a new computer for one out of every thirty or so people on the planet — and it’s showing a growth over 2023. But with the previous post-pandemic slump in sales, and big pushes around AI and Windows 11, it still feels like a big disappointment.
The numbers come from Gartner, which lays out a lot of statistics for the global and US markets broken down by major manufacturers. Apple’s Mac computers and ChromeOS devices are included. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Asus (9.8 percent growth), Acer, Apple, and Lenovo are the big winners in terms of total shipment increase over Q42023, with HP and Dell getting small dips. Apple, Asus, and Lenovo showed the biggest jumps in market share globally, while HP had a sizable seven percent dip.
Restricting the focus to the US market shows a healthier shipment increase, 17.192 million shipments in Q4 with an increase of 3.5 percent. Asus and Acer made huge gains over the same period in previous year, 35 percent and 20 percent respectively, while Dell and HP were both down by small margins.
Gartner summarizes 2024 as a “modest recovery” for the PC market, with the consideration that 2023 was the weakest year in the last decade. Compared to 2021, when 340 million units were shipped at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, sports fans would say we’re still very much in a rebuilding phase.
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