After two years of decline, global shipments of personal computers returned to pre-pandemic volumes during the first quarter of 2024, according to a new report by research company International Data Corporation.
Global PC shipments hit 59.8 million in the first three months of the year, growing 1.5 per cent year on year, the research showed.
First quarter PC volumes rivalled those seen in the same period in 2019, when 60.5 million units were shipped.
Growth was largely achieved due to year-on-year comparisons as the market had declined 28.7 per cent during the first quarter of 2023, which was the lowest point in PC history, IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker showed.
“Despite China’s struggles, the recovery is expected to continue in 2024, as newer PCs powered by artificial intelligence hit shelves later this year and as commercial buyers begin refreshing the PCs that were purchased during the pandemic,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.
“Along with growth in shipments, AI PCs are also expected to carry higher price tags, providing further opportunity for PC and component makers.”
Global PC shipments dropped 14 per cent on an annual basis in 2023 as a result of a slowdown in demand from commercial and consumer sectors, according to a report by Counterpoint Research in January.
Although there were several product launches in the second half of last year, they did not contribute to sales because most of them will not start shipping until 2024.
PC shipments growth dropped 0.2 per cent annually to 65.1 million units in the fourth quarter of last year. This was the eighth consecutive quarter to record a year-on-year shipment decline.
PCs powered by AI are expected to drive a strong rebound in the global PC market, which continues to grapple with weak demand, a study by Counterpoint Research showed last year.
AI PCs are projected to have a 10-year compound annual growth rate of 50 per cent from 2020, eventually dominating the market after 2026, with a penetration rate of more than 50 per cent, Counterpoint Research said.
Intel, Qualcomm and other makers of PC CPUs are “working closely” with original equipment manufacturers to develop next-generation mainstream models, and a lot of product launches are expected in 2024, “marking a new chapter for the PC industry”, the Hong Kong-based research company added.
Annual PC shipments could return to pre-coronavirus levels in 2024 and would also be boosted by user upgrades to Microsoft Windows 11 and the next wave of Arm-based computers, the research showed.
With inflation numbers trending down, PC shipments have begun to recover in most regions, leading to growth in the Americas as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to the IDC report.
However, the deflationary pressures in China directly impacted the global PC market, it said.
As the largest consumer of desktop PCs, weak demand in China led to yet another quarter of declines for global desktop shipments, which already faced pressure from notebooks as the preferred form, the US company added.
Chinese manufacturer Lenovo once again held the top spot and outgrew the market largely as a result of the steep decline in shipments experienced in the first three months of 2023, according to IDC.
Lenovo and its US counterpart Hewlett-Packard led the market with 23 per cent and 20.1 per cent market shares.
They were followed by Dell (15.5 per cent market share), Apple (8.1 per cent) and Acer (6.2 per cent).
Lenovo sold 13.7 million PCs globally, followed by HP (12 million), Dell (9.3 million), Apple (4.8 million) and Acer (3.7 million) in the first quarter, the data showed.
Apple's strong growth was also due to an outsized decline in the prior year, the report said.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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The five pillars of Islam
The Energy Research Centre
Founded 50 years ago as a nuclear research institute, scientists at the centre believed nuclear would be the “solution for everything”.
Although they still do, they discovered in 1955 that the Netherlands had a lot of natural gas. “We still had the idea that, by 2000, it would all be nuclear,” said Harm Jeeninga, director of business and programme development at the centre.
"In the 1990s, we found out about global warming so we focused on energy savings and tackling the greenhouse gas effect.”
The energy centre’s research focuses on biomass, energy efficiency, the environment, wind and solar, as well as energy engineering and socio-economic research.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
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Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
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