Should leaders place bets on new PCs or generative AI?
- Reference: 1689091268
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/07/11/pc_sales_q2/
- Source link:
And so it continued in calendar Q2 when worldwide shipments of computers sold into the channel shrank 13.4 percent year-on-year to 61.6 million units, according to IDC data. This was better than the [1]drama of the prior quarter but weakness lingers.
The only top five vendor to report growth this time round was Apple - like in Q1 - with Mac sales estimated to be up 10.3 percent to 5.3 million units. Apple benefited from a weaker comparison period a year ago when Mac supply chains in China shut down, [2]IDC said .
[3]
The next best performer was HP, declining 0.8 percent to 13.4 million. It “faced an oversupply of inventory” in the past 12 months and is now edging closer to more normal levels of six to eight weeks worth of stock.
[4]
[5]
This is a point made by CEO Enrique Lores in HP’s latest quarterly results, although [6]price promotions took a toll on HP’s profits in Q1 of its financial year.
As for the others, Lenovo, Dell, and Acer collectively sold seven million fewer PCs into the channel during the quarter. Lenovo shipments dropped 18.4 percent to 14.2 million units, Dell declined 22 percent to 10.3 million, and Acer was down 19.2 percent to four million.
[7]
It is “inflated channel and component inventory” that continues to drag down the market, the analyst said, with retailers and distributors wary of ordering more stock.
[8]Lenovo profits sink 75% as PC demand continues nosedive
[9]Sweating the assets: Techies hold onto PCs, phones for longer than ever
[10]Second-hand and refurbished phone market takes flight amid inflation hike
[11]PC shipments fall at fastest rate ever as businesses slam wallets shut
“Companies don’t want to be caught with short supply like they were in 2020 and 2021, but at the same time, many seem hesitant to make the big bets on a market rebound,” said Ryan Reith, IDC group veep for Client Devices Trackers.
“On the consumer side, we’re seeing a return to pre-pandemic habits where computing needs are shared across multiple devices, and we firmly believe the consumer wallet will favor smartphones over the PC.
“On the commercial side, workforce reductions (for many big companies) as well as the introduction of generative AI only add more confusion as to where to place an already reduced budget.” ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/10/not_even_apple_is_impervious/
[2] https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS51020623
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZK3RBtjH2hWds0bXTWfNlQAAAYk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZK3RBtjH2hWds0bXTWfNlQAAAYk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZK3RBtjH2hWds0bXTWfNlQAAAYk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/01/hp_q1_23/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZK3RBtjH2hWds0bXTWfNlQAAAYk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/24/lenovo_q4_2023_profit_sales_crash/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/31/gartner_pc_shipment_forecast/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/10/idc_secondhand_phones_sales_bright_spot_in_crappy_phone_market/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/11/pc_shipments_fall_at_fastest/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
And with all the layoffs many businesses now have more laptops than people to use them.
AI is certainly something that most companies will want to keep an eye on, in case it ever evolves into something useful. But I really doubt that many companies are planning large-scale production projects based on LLM's or generative AI.
AI.. Not here yet remember is like an apprentice that you know/hope will be better than you (if you train it properly). How many people have the bollox for that? There will be a "hiccup". On the other hand HP et al are like cocroaches or tartigrades; they always survive.
@xyz: AI.. Not here yet remember is like an apprentice that you know/hope
What?
Bring it on
It might mean I can get a new laptop at a sensible price.
Apple benefited from ... when supply chains in China shut down?
The entire PC industry is in China, at least as far as big players like Dell and HP go (i.e. Toshiba and LG were probably in better shape) so if Apple's numbers a year ago were limited by this and this have a more favorable compare today, shouldn't the same be true of most of the PC OEMs? I wasn't aware all the zero covid shutdowns in China only affected Apple lol
AI is not relevant to this.
Was it included to sex up a report on computer purchasing habits?
People doing real work will use PCs and laptops.
Ordinary people are being bullied into using smartphones by the state. Personally I'd be happier if I could arrive at a station, buy a ticket with cash and hop on a train. When they end that, I just won't bother any more.
Re: AI is not relevant to this.
Supermarkets are at it too on the cash-elimination drive - 'card only' checkouts mixed in with the others, but most or all of the checkouts will be closed anyway so you'll be pushed into using the self-service machines which don't take cash.
Clearly even that isn't getting them enough data, so at least one of the big supermarkets has made all it's BOGOF, 3 for 2, meal deal, etc, offers only available to people with their loyalty card (which also seems to be available on a phone app - useful data nexus there!). Fuck 'em - I try to use that supermarket as little as possible now!
most of the big brands are still struggling to find new homes for their aging inventory
Are we supposed to feel sorry for them? If people aren't buying at that price, you need to reduce the price until they do. Simple market rules.
If you don't want to reduce the price because you still feel entitled to your old profit margins, and end up getting stuck with ever less valuable stock, tough shit.
But why are new corporate laptop sales really on ice?
Our last refresh was 2018 and complete overkill. Overkill is key - it can save money in the long term. The batteries got hammered and we’re replacing them. Some of the SSDs are seriously hammered. Cheap enough to replace. Fact is, we got to a point of sufficiency a few years back. Anything with a quad core i7, minimum 16GB and enough SSD is still very sufficient today for most peeps/tasks.
Many companies bought loads of computers (especially laptops) in 2020 and 2021. Therefore it's hardly surprising that there is now a slump in sales as none of these devices are due for replacement yet.
I'm really not sure what "AI" - a solution looking for a problem to address, in many industries - has to do with it - users are still going to need client devices, whatever they are using them for, and the over-hyped AI isn't going to suddenly require a radically different type of device!