The global PC market witnessed a 4.4 percent year-over-year growth in shipments during the second quarter of 2025, reaching over 63 million units, according to preliminary data from Gartner. This marks a positive shift driven primarily by enterprise demand rather than consumer spending.
Enterprise purchases have been fueled by Windows 11 migration initiatives and the renewal of devices acquired during the pandemic, particularly desktops.
In contrast, consumer PC demand has softened, with buyers delaying upgrades amid economic caution and longer product life cycles. Organizations appear to be prioritizing software upgrades over hardware replacements, dampening expectations of a major PC refresh cycle.
PC spending in 2025 is expected to remain cautious overall, but front-loaded inventory movements in the U.S. due to tariff concerns contributed to a shipment surge in the first half. Globally, Windows 11 replacement cycles continue to support enterprise purchases. However, shipment momentum is likely to stall in the second half of the year, with vendors anticipated to pull back on shipments to manage inventory levels and avoid a glut.
Regionally, the U.S. PC market dipped slightly by 0.5 percent, reflecting weaker consumer spending. Asia-Pacific remained stable after prior declines, suggesting early signs of stabilization. EMEA, in contrast, recorded a 5.3 percent growth in shipments, supported by stronger-than-usual seasonal demand and ongoing desktop replacements driven by OS migrations.
Vendors are responding to these dynamics by fine-tuning their channel inventory strategies, focusing on enterprise segments, and offering extended lifecycle support for existing devices. Many are also optimizing product portfolios to emphasize premium and AI-powered devices, while holding back aggressive consumer rollouts until demand improves.
PC vendors
Lenovo retained its lead with 17.04 million units shipped, up from 14.96 million in Q2 2024, achieving a 13.9 percent growth and increasing its market share from 24.7 percent to 26.9 percent.
HP Inc. shipped 14.12 million units, a 3.2 percent increase over last year’s 13.69 million, maintaining a stable market share at 22.3 percent.
Dell saw a decline of 3.0 percent, with shipments falling from 10.14 million to 9.83 million, resulting in a drop in market share from 16.7 percent to 15.6 percent.
Apple experienced a 13.4 percent growth, increasing shipments from 5.03 million to 5.70 million, and its market share rose from 8.3 percent to 9.0 percent.
ASUS also grew, with shipments climbing from 4.13 million to 4.49 million, reflecting an 8.7 percent growth and a market share rise from 6.8 percent to 7.1 percent.
Overall, Lenovo and Apple posted the strongest year-over-year growth in Q2 2025, while Dell was the only major vendor to report a decline in shipments.
Rajani Baburajan
