With the 2022 post-COVID tech boom subsiding quite a bit, the effect can be seen directly on consumer electronics as well, specially smartphones and laptops. According to a new report by Canalys, the overall shipments of PCs over the course of the previous year saw a decline of 16%.
Canalys puts the total shipments for 2022 at 285.1 million units, marking a decline from 2021 when the demand for PCs and electronics was at all-time highs owing to COVID-induced work from home. For the year’s final quarter, holiday and festive sales failed to provide a boost as the total shipments of desktops and notebooks fell by 29% to drop to 65.4 million units.
The quarterly drop marked the fourth consecutive quarter of decline amidst an economic downturn, fears of a recession, a fall in average selling prices (ASPs), and other factors. The muted demand for electronics and gadgetry has even forced companies to alter and adjust their production goals – Apple had to do the same in the case of its latest iPhone 14 lineup.
According to Ishan Dutt, Senior Analyst, Canalys, vendors, and retailers failed to “drive significant new sell-in” despite providing heavy discounts to consumers, and things are unlikely to change until the second half of next year arrives. They did, however, bring the total volumes of shipments to a level higher than it was in the pre-pandemic era, and desktops fared better than notebooks during the past year.
The total shipments of notebooks dropped by 30% to 51.4 million units in the winter quarter and clocked a decline of 19% to 223.8 million units for the full year. In contrast, desktops dropped by 24% to 14.1 million units in Q4 and 7% to 61.3 million units over the full year.
“With rising costs for energy and basic goods in key markets like the US and Europe, expenditure on big-ticket items like PCs has taken a back seat as consumers are prepared to delay refreshes. Meanwhile, on the commercial front, both public and private sector budgets faced tightening amid rising interest rates, slowdowns in hiring, and expectations of a recession early next year,” Dutt said. He added that 60% of around 250 channel partners expected their revenue from their PC vertical business revenue to remain flat or decline this year.
Looking back to the performance of the major players in the PC market, we find that Lenovo secured the top spot with a market share of 23.6% and shipping nearly 15.5 million units in the final quarter (a year-on-year decline of 29%). It is followed by HP, which saw a decline of 29% in shipments in Q4 – 13.2 million units. Dell, which came third, saw its shipments drop by 37.2% to reach 10.9 million units for the quarter. Apple comes fourth with a decline of 7.5% in its shipments, which came to 7.2 million. Asus completes the top five with a drop of 19.9% and shipping 4.8 million units in the fourth quarter.
The top five remain unchanged when it comes to shipments throughout the year – Lenovo shipped 68.1 million units in 2022, followed by the 55.2 million units shipped by HP. Dell and Apple take up the third and fourth places by shipping 49.7 million and 27.16 million respectively for the year 2022. Asus comes last with a total of 20.6 million shipments over the course of the year.
