- PC shipments are increasing, but they are being influenced by the tariff impacts
- Notebooks are much more popular than desktop computers
- Consumers could be updating in mass next year
Although President Trump’s tariffs continue to create uncertainty in the PC industry, the new figures have suggested that device shipments continue to increase, and now they could be the best time to update if it is in the market.
During the second quarter of 2025, experts in Channels industry tracked 67.6 million units sent worldwide, 7.4% more year after year.
IDC, another market research firm that is assigned to industry monitoring, tracked 68.4 million shipments, marking a smaller but equally healthy increase of 6.5% year after year.
PC shipments continue to increase
A recent United States-Vietnam commercial agreement has introduced a 20% tariff on Vietnamese goods, and a 40% tariff on transmitting goods, such as Chinese pieces that have been assembled in Vietnam, helping to maintain a cost limit for consumers.
At the same time, we are also seeing that more suppliers increase the stock, since they accumulate low cost devices before tariff uncertainty is eliminated, which can cause more expensive tariffs for certain imports.
Although desktop computers (9%) saw greater growth than laptops (7%), notebooks still represent about four out of five of all PC shipments worldwide.
However, much of growth can be attributed to business clients. Companies have been more active than consumers in the update of devices in response to the next end of support of Windows 10, more likely to maintain their device for longer.
Although Macs only represent about one in ten pc sent, Apple saw the healthiest quarterly growth of 21.3% thanks to the strong demand for new models with M4 engine, and the company could have a similar growth next quarter, with its agreements back to school in the last days of the last quarter.
Looking towards the future, demand could grow as more consumers seek to update their devices, potentially raising prices and now making the best time to update.
The Channels Research Manager, Kieren Jessop, explained: “We anticipate that the consumption PC market grows next year, since it coincides with a possible cycle of device update of the Covid era, which begin to reach its end of life.”
