PC sales drop by almost 50%

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After months of euphoria and an explosive demand quite artificial, the market knows a brutal return to reality. For many months we’ve been warning here about this return to reality, which is likely to leave its mark, so much so that some people took advantage of the Covid crisis to wallow in a commercial comfort where everything was sold at any price. Today, some people seem to be surprised that PC sales (and components) are falling…

ventes de PC

PC sales: the hangover

The backlash is even more brutal than expected as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has amplified the general inflation and economic instability that was already caused by the COVID period. Recent statistics published by Mercury Research show that there was a drop in the desktop market of almost 30% in the first quarter worldwide. This is the largest quarterly decline in history and early indications are that the second quarter will follow the same trend. For ASUS CEO Xu Xian Yue, interviewed by Digitimes, we can expect another 10% sequential sales decline in Q2 2022, while shipments of motherboards and graphics cards will fall by 10% and 15%. For Asus, this decline is purely down to a drop in demand, as the company says there were currently no shortages on most parts and components. This situation also affects the market of “hardcore” buyers who are waiting for new technologies and a return to more aggressive pricing to buy components. On this subject, the increase in freight prices, the shortage of containers, the congestion of the ports and the collapse of the Euro against the Dollar obviously amplify the problems.

Hope for an end to the crisis and the “Coué” method

However, industry analysts believe that the phenomenon could begin to reverse in the second half of the year to return to normal operations (but more in line with the figures for 2019 than those for 2020-2021). The switch to new generations of components would be the main driver of this recovery. However, if the international situation and high inflation persist, new products or not, consumers will have other concerns than PCs.