IDC wasn’t expecting much from PC sales for the coming year, but now considers the already mediocre forecasts to be overly optimistic.

IDC considered 429.5 million PCs shipped in 2022 to be an overly optimistic forecast. The analyst firm believes it overestimated the market and is now deducting 26 million units shipped from its expectations. In the coming year, only 403.1 million desktops and laptops would go over the counter. 142.3 million of those devices will be in tablet form factor, according to IDC.

The forecasts are pessimistic: the market would shrink by a further 11.2 percent this year compared to the previous year. The causes are not mysterious. IDC highlights the macroeconomic situation and the impact of a strong dollar on global purchasing power. In addition, overdue orders from the Covid period are now virtually eliminated.

Worse than before the pandemic

According to current forecasts, the market will be even smaller in 2022 than it was in 2019, before the pandemic. At that time 410.8 million devices were sold worldwide, although it was a booming year with growth for the first time in seven years. Mandatory upgrades to Windows 10 then drove sales.

IDC expects the migration to Windows 11 to breathe new life into the market in the future, but that will have to wait a while. In 2025, Microsoft would end support for Windows 10. IDC expects PC sales to increase as a result in 2024 and 2025.