Dell led the way in the third quarter with 4.7 million systems shipped in the US followed by HP at 4.1 million and Apple at three million. Among the top five vendors by volume, only Apple and Acer experienced positive annual growth. HP saw sales slide more than 23 percent year over year and Lenovo’s US shipments were down 22.2 percent.
Despite the dips, manufacturers and retailers are doing everything they can to spur sales including ramping up promotions during the holidays. We saw several attractive deals on offer during Black Friday and Cyber Monday week and they’re likely to keep coming right until the very last minute. Then of course, you’ll have post-holiday sales because everyone will need something to spend their gift cards and newfound cash on. Canalys research analyst Brian Lynch expects the US PC market to face further headwinds despite the Q4 holiday season. Cash-strapped consumers are expected to continue to cut spending on expensive technology products, resulting in retail inventories growing faster than sales. The education sector is forecast to begin a slow recovery next year but the majority of device refreshes are now expected to happen in 2024. Image credit: Santeri Viinamäki
