Don't Buy A New Work Pc Right Now — Memory Crunch And Price Rises Lead To Global Shipments Falling For The First Time In Two Years

• Analyst data shows global PC market contracted 3.6% during Q2 2026
• AI's insatiable demand for memory and other chips is rising costs across the board
• Prices could continue to rise as the market continues to shrink, analysts predict

All the latest data points to a worsening situation for PC makers in the coming years, with global PC shipments falling 4.9% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026 per IDC data, or down 3.6% per Canalys.

While the two differ on total volumes due to tracking differences, both firms agree the market is shrinking as a result of soaring memory prices and other cost increases.

Market researchers now broadly agree that AI-driven demand for memory chips could create shortages that continue for months, or even years, impacting the consumer device end of the market as data centers bid to pay over the odds for chips.

Global PC market starts to shrink

Lenovo, HP and Dell all saw global shipment volumes drop by 2.1% to 9% during the most recent three-month period, with Asus barely tipping into the positives at 0.2-0.9% up. Apple was the only major manufacturer to see any considerable shipment increases, tracked at 10.1-15.9% depending on the source.

IDC credited its success to the launch of the MacBook Neo, however even Apple was forced to raise prices pretty considerably across the board after failing to absorb component cost increases with previous pricing. The MacBook Neo was hit with a $100 increase (a 14-17% increase), with MacBook Pro buyers forced to pay an additional $300 (up 18%).

"After the pull-forward activity seen in the first half of the year, signals are now pointing to a period of delayed demand as the true impact of the supply crunch sinks in,” said Omdia Research Director Ishan Dutt wrote.

"Given worsening macro conditions and a memory shortage that isn’t expected to ease until early 2028, we don’t expect another round of inventory pull-forward, which points to a sharp slowdown in growth rates in the second half of 2026," IDC research director for consumer devices Jitesh Ubrani added.