PC shipments tumble over 20% in Q3 2026 as memory shortages bite

A sharp market contraction

Global PC shipments fell 20.1% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026, a decline of 15.8 million units, according to research firm IDC. That is far steeper than the 3.8% year-over-year drop seen in the previous quarter, and down 9.1% from the second quarter of this year.

Why it is happening

The main cause is the AI data center boom pulling memory and storage production away from consumers. Hyperscalers are pouring money into the HBM memory needed for AI GPUs, so memory makers are shifting capacity to that segment. As a result, consumer memory supply is shrinking and prices are climbing fast. According to the source, 128GB of DDR5 now costs as much as $3,399.

Vendors stocked up, shipments fell

PC makers loaded up on inventory in the second quarter of 2026 to get ahead of expected price hikes. According to IDC's Jitesh Ubrani, this early pull-in threw off the usual seasonality and made third-quarter shipments look weak. Ubrani says channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand, which could bring promotions and short-term relief, but prices are not expected to return to last year's levels.

Who was hit hardest

The top three vendors took the biggest hit: Lenovo fell 22.6%, HP 30.9% and Dell 25%. Apple's shipments shrank 11.3% and Asus's fell 8.6%. Lenovo, HP and Dell still led the market with 23.8%, 16.5% and 12.1% share respectively.

A more optimistic voice

While many in the industry, including memory makers, say the situation will not improve for years, Acer CEO Jason Chen disagrees. He argues the fears are hyped to protect memory makers' margins and estimates PC prices will decline by the second half of 2027 as Chinese memory capacity comes online.