Sales of computers in Western Europe, including desktops, laptops and workstations, fell 38% to 10.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year. According to the Canalys agency, laptops performed the worst in the reporting period.
Image source: Canalys
According to the agency, 8.6 million laptops were sold, down 40% from a year earlier. Desktop computer sales fell 29% to 2.1 million. In addition, the overall decline was reflected in the supply of tablets, which sold 17.7% less compared to the same period last year – 6.6 million copies. In general, shipments of PCs and tablets fell 21% and 18% respectively at the end of 2022, a further decline will continue for most of 2023, and growth is only projected in the fourth quarter.
According to a Canalys spokesman, shipments of consumer PCs in Western Europe fell 27% in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, despite big discounts. The continued decline during the holiday season is due to both the impact of general economic conditions on demand and the accumulation of excess inventory in warehouses.
At the same time, it is worth remembering that the computer market in Western Europe was extremely saturated when the pandemic began, with shipments being eight consecutive quarters higher than in the New Year’s quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, the corporate market is “fading” as the EU central bank has hiked interest rates, with the trend will continue until early 2023. IT savings have impacted company revenues, which are just beginning to recover after the lifting of COVID-19-related hygiene restrictions.
There is reason for optimism, Canalys said, as PC sales appear to have already bottomed out, beginning to improve from late 2022, shedding inventories and paving the way for new shipments if demand recovers in the near future. According to experts, market growth will accelerate in 2024 due to pent-up demand and a rebound in interest in such products among business users amid wider adoption of Windows 11. As Canalys expects, deliveries in Western Europe will fall another 7% in 2023 before rising 12% in 2024. However, the tablet market will fare worse, with a 10% decline this year and only 4% growth next year.
Image source: Canalys
It is known that in the fourth quarter of 2022 every provider from the top 5 shipped fewer PCs in Western Europe than in the third quarter. Lenovo and HP (first and second in terms of shipments) remain the largest computer suppliers, down 35% and 43% respectively. Dell ranked third with a 42.4% drop, followed by Apple with a 22.8% drop and ASUS with a 24.9% drop. It turns out that Apple had the weakest drop, but still very significant. Canalys warns that the data presented in the tables may not correspond to 100% due to the rounding of some indicators.
In terms of tablets, the Q4 release of the 10th-gen iPad allowed Apple to maintain its No. However, year-end shipments were still down 16%. Samsung ranked second – it was the only vendor to post growth over the period. Lenovo’s fourth-quarter shipments fell 62% year over year in one fell swoop, pushing the manufacturer to fourth place behind Amazon. Huawei ranked fifth, although its shipments were also down 66%.
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