Computer market shipments fell 20% between July and September

According to the latest data from IDC, global computer shipments fell 20.1% in the third quarter of the year (July-September) compared to the same period last year, reaching 62.7 million units. This is the second consecutive quarter of decline, following a much smaller drop of 3.8% in Q2. Shipments in Q3 also fell by 9.1% compared to the previous quarter, so it's anything but a great situation for the industry.

There are some things to keep in mind, though. These reports talk about shipments and not sales to consumers. IDC notes that during the first half of the year, retailers loaded up on inventory (and this was reported as shipments in the previous quarters) to get ahead of the impending price hikes. Thus in Q3 most retailers focused on clearing out all that inventory and not acquiring new stock.

Jitesh Ubrani, IDC's research director for consumer devices, says "channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand". While that could result in a few promotions here and there, IDC expects prices to remain high across the industry. "With macro conditions worsening, the risk is that the outlook for the next few quarters gets worse before it gets better", Ubrani adds.

As you can see in the table above, Lenovo led the market in Q3 with 14.9 million shipments and a 23.8% market share, followed by HP with 10.3 million shipments and a 16.5% market share, Dell with 7.6 million shipments and a 12.1% market share, Apple with 5.9 million shipments and a 9.5% market share, and Asus with 5.5 million shipments and an 8.7% market share.

HP's shipments were hit the hardest in Q3 compared to the year-ago quarter, followed by Dell's and Lenovo's. Asus saw the smallest decline in shipments, followed by Apple.

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