New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS): The global PC market witnessed a 14 per cent (year-over-year) shipment decline in 2023 due to a slowdown in commercial and consumer sectors, a new report has said.

The global PC market ended the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 with a 0.2 per cent (year-over-year) shipment decline. This was the eighth consecutive quarter of a year-over-year shipment decline, according to Counterpoint Research.

"The year-end holiday season failed to trigger a meaningful shipment recovery. Both OEMs and ODMs expect that shipment momentum will come back in H1 2024," the analysts said.

According to the report, PC OEMs’ (Original Equipment Manufacturer) rankings remained unchanged throughout 2023 as soft demand and inventory digestions held back shipment performance across the market.

In 2023, Lenovo and HP continued to lead the market with 24 per cent and 21 per cent market shares, respectively, with the latter reporting a relatively resilient 5 per cent (year-over-year) shipment decline due to warm restocking momentum in the North American market. With a 16 per cent market share, Dell experienced a 20 per cent drop in shipments due to sluggish commercial demand. Along with a 14 per cent drop in shipments, Apple ended 2023 with a roughly 9 per cent market share.

Moreover, analysts believe that AI PCs will be in the spotlight in 2024 as Intel and AMD both have CPU solutions (Meteor Lake and Hawk Point) for next-generation AI PCs.

In Q4 2023, PC vendors also continued to announce new AI PC products across different segments.

"After CES, more AI PC products will be launched by vendors, though we expect the major replacement cycle will be backend-loaded in H2 2024," the analysts stated.

Further, the analysts projected a 50 per cent market share for AI laptops by 2025, provided that the PC has an NPU or AI accelerator (also known as an AI engine) in addition to a primary CPU and GPU.