According to IDC’s most recent ‘Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker’, Australia’s PC market declined by 19.1% year-on-year (YoY in Q1 2023 with 996,000 units shipped, due largely to the decline in consumer demand, growing inflation concerns, and excess inventory levels.
While the consumer segment declined by 33.3% YoY, the commercial segment declined by a moderate 2.1% YoY. This can be attributed to businesses reassessing their spending budgets amidst the growing economic uncertainty.
“The macroeconomic environment is currently experiencing high levels of inflation, and increasing interest rates, which is impacting PC demand from both commercial and consumer segments,” said Sharmishtha Bhatt, Lead Analyst PC Devices Research at IDC Australia.
Market leader, HP had a challenging quarter with a 4.1% YoY decline in shipments, primarily due to the decline in demand from consumer, education, and small business segments.
Second-placed Dell experienced a 9.3% YoY decline, mostly due to the slowdown in its primary markets – small-to-medium-businesses and education segments.
Lenovo’s shipments declined by 30.5% YoY due to high inventory levels from previous quarters.
Fourth-placed Apple had an 18.7% YoY decline, with analysts noting that shipments of M2 processor-based systems were lower because their pricing was less competitive compared to M1 processors.
For 2023, the Australia PC market is expected to decline by 14.4% YoY in 2023 due to the macroeconomic situation, inflation, and uncertainty in the market. The end-of-financial-year sales in June are expected to provide some relief for the Q2 2023 market, but overall, the market is still likely to experience significant stress. Despite this outlook, there are some positive signs that suggest that the market may be able to recover in 2H 2023.