Gartner: PC shipments collapse by nearly a quarter

PC sales have fallen yet again as AI-driven price increases continue to bite, according to Gartner.

The trillion-dollar AI infrastructure rollout has led to shortages of key components, notably memory and storage, with one report suggesting AI will use a fifth of DRAM capacity this year.

Gartner said that global PC shipments were 55.4 million in the third quarter of 2026, down 22.4% from the 71.3 million shipped in the same quarter last year. That's on par with shipments from the first quarter of 2023, the analyst firm noted – and the decline is double the 10% annual reduction in PC shipments predicted by Gartner earlier this year.

That fall in shipments is largely down to rising costs of components driving up overall prices, Gartner said, leading to slower sales.

"The impact of higher memory and storage costs is now fully reflected in PC pricing," said Namrata Banerjee, principal analyst for research at Gartner. "DRAM costs surged five times year-over-year in the second quarter, and PC vendors passed those higher component costs on to customers, driving the steep decline in PC shipments during the third quarter."

Scarcity rather than oversupply

While sales have hit similar levels as they were two and a half years ago, the dips are driven by different causes, Gartner added.

"PC shipments have fallen to levels last seen in early 2023, though the market dynamics were noticeably different," said Banerjee. "Rather than excess inventory, the decline in the third quarter of 2026 was driven by higher prices, vendor-led reprioritization of scarce components and a shift toward higher-priced configurations."

The AI-driven components shortage has led PC makers to focus on higher-end models in order to help maintain margins and absorb some rising costs, with a separate report from Omdia earlier this year predicting reduced availability of low-budget devices alongside a wider rise in prices.

Banerjee suggested the absence of budget models was leading customers to hold off upgrading, while businesses focus on AI-focused investments. "The resulting reduction in the availability of lower-cost devices made replacement purchases less affordable for consumers, while businesses focused spending on targeted investments, such as workstations and AI PCs rather than broad-based PC deployments," Banerjee said.

Sales slide across the board

The sales decline hit all of the top PC makers, Gartner added.

Apple saw the smallest fall in shipments at 7.1% between the third quarter of this year and last year, but its PC rivals posted double-digit declines. Market leader Lenovo fell 22.4% over the same period, while second-ranked HP tumbled by nearly a third at 30.9%, and Dell wasn't far behind at 25.4%. Asus and Acer had slower slides at 13% and 11.2% respectively.

The report from Gartner follows a separate report from Counterpoint research showing global smartphone shipments had fallen 20% on-year to their lowest for the third quarter since 2021 – also driven by higher memory costs and supply shortages of other components. Over the summer, Apple admitted that the AI buildout would lead to more expensive iPhones.