- 2025 saw healthy PC market growth, but 2026 will be much more turbulent
- Memory and storage prices are rising and it’s not good for consumers
- Budget devices could see the biggest price increases
Despite a 9.2% year-over-year increase in 2025 (and 10.1% in Q4 2025), Omdia analysts are concerned that global PC shipments could fall in 2026 due to rising costs and increasing pressure from AI data centers.
The company’s data claims that conventional PC memory costs increased by around 70% throughout 2025 as a whole, and vendors even began warning customers of price increases towards the end of the year. Even more worrying, analysts have already predicted a further 50% increase in the first quarter of 2026.
As memory manufacturers are prioritizing high-margin server DRAM and HBM for data centers, production of conventional DDR PC memory has been affected and supply is not meeting demand. SSD costs also increased by 40% in 2025.
PC prices will rise, shipping volumes will fall
Omdia expects memory shortages to impact PC sales in 2026, with OEMs likely to focus on high-end devices as a result of rising component costs. Mid- and low-end configurations could also end up shipping with less RAM or storage to counteract the limited supply.
“Given supply tightness for 2026, the industry is emphasizing high-end SKUs and more efficient mid- to low-end configurations to protect margins,” principal analyst Ben Yeh explained.
Trendforce also published a similar report in late 2025, predicting a 5.4% year-over-year decline in global laptop shipments by 2026. Laptops accounted for around four in five (79%) of all PC shipments in 2025 according to Omdia, with PCs taking up a much smaller market share.
Additionally, if conditions worsen, there could be a 10.1% decline in laptop shipments, Trendforce warns.
IDC also agreed that shipments could fall this year. “IDC expects the PC market to be very different in 12 months, given how quickly the memory situation is evolving,” explained research vice president Jean Philippe Bouchard.
IDC did not release market predictions, but the company’s analysts warned of extreme volatility, lower average memory configurations, and further price increases.
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