Counterpoint: Q2 Global PC Market Rebounds, with a Year-on-Year Growth of 3.1% to Reach 62.5 Million Units
In Q2 2024, global PC shipments increased by 3.1% year-on-year to reach 62.5 million units, marking the second consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth in the PC market. AI PCs have become a hot topic in the industry, with the surge of AI laptops powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform. Lenovo maintained its leading position among PC manufacturers with a 23.6% market share and a 4% year-on-year shipment growth. HP and Dell saw stable performance as orders in the North American market returned to the original levels. Brands like Apple maintained their rankings and market shares in Q2 2024. It is expected that PC devices based on ARM architecture will capture a significant share by 2027
According to preliminary data from Counterpoint, the global PC shipment volume in Q2 2024 increased by 3.1% year-on-year to reach 62.5 million units. This marks the second consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth in PC market shipments. This growth is driven by a moderate replacement cycle and a relatively low base period, highlighting the continued recovery momentum of the global PC market in 2024. AI PCs remain a hot topic in the PC industry. Laptops equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform have sparked the first wave of AI laptop craze. The upcoming AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Intel Lunar Lake, expected to be released in the latter part of Q3 2024, will further promote the popularity of AI PCs.
Despite weak demand in the Chinese market, Lenovo still maintains its leading position among PC manufacturers with a market share of 23.6% and a year-on-year shipment growth of about 4%. Thanks to the return of North American order volumes to their original levels, HP and Dell performed steadily this quarter. HP held a market share of 21% in Q2 2024, while Dell had 16%. Apple's performance this quarter remained stable with a market share of 8.5%. The company is awaiting the release of the new MacBook with the M4 chip, hoping to achieve shipment growth by the end of 2024. Overall, these brands' rankings and market shares remained relatively stable in Q2 2024.
Due to the surge of AI devices based on the Windows on Arm architecture at the end of Q2 2024, AI laptops will drive the expansion of the AI PC market in the second half of 2024. Compared to the mainstream x86 architecture camp, these solutions based on Qualcomm Snapdragon have higher power performance. Counterpoint believes that the cooperation between MediaTek and NVIDIA on the next generation of ARM-based AI laptops will also drive their corresponding PC market share expansion in 2025-2026, affecting the market share of x86 manufacturers. It is expected that by 2027, ARM-based PC devices will account for over 25% of the market share.
Regarding the development of AI PCs, Senior Analyst William Li stated, "The second half of 2024 will be the battlefield for AI PCs. Manufacturers are promoting the popularity of AI PCs and the rise of a new generation of technology. However, due to the higher prices of AI PCs, we believe that enterprise (commercial) demand will lead the mainstream consumer market, and in the first year of AI PC launch, we may not see a very high rate of adoption." With more AI cases and solutions being developed and adopted on the PC side, we will see a faster deployment and popularization in the future. Thanks to the demand for AI PCs and the replacement cycle after the COVID-19 pandemic, we still believe that the shipment growth of PCs in 2024 will be around 3%
