A small company captures Apple’s PC market share: here’s what happened

The global PC market is continuing on its path to recovery with YoY growth for the fourth quarter in a row.

The total PC shipments grew by 1.3% YoY to 66.4 million units. These units include desktop PCs, notebooks, and workstations.

The market is currently led by Lenovo, which sold 16.49 million units globally followed by HP at 13.57 million units.

These two continue to be the most dominant players in the PC market.

The most interesting part of the new numbers was Apple’s decline in PC sales.

It went down by 17.5% YoY, suggesting the company’s PCs aren’t as popular among users as before.

While it is not yet clear what alternatives people are preferring, or maybe they simply don’t feel the need to upgrade at the moment.

But ASUS’ rise to the fourth spot with a staggering 15.8% growth, the highest among the top 5 players, has surprised many people.

Microsoft’s role in the PC market recovery

Microsoft has played a key role in driving the recovery of the PC market.

The reason lies in the end of life of Windows 10 which is set for October 2025.

Companies have less than a year to upgrade their systems to Windows 11 so that they don’t have to pay the extended support fees for Windows 10.

This is driving the sales for market players that use the Windows operating system.

This would also explain why these players are experiencing an uptick in performance despite Apple struggling.

ASUS is a small company by industry standards and still showed the highest growth among the top 5 players.

If this growth was driven by the Windows end of life, it would probably not impress investors and analysts as much, as the company had a smaller base to begin with.

Artificial Intelligence adding to PC demand

AI has influenced the PC market just like any other market. As it penetrates the PC market, people are inclined to upgrade their older PCs.

All semiconductor companies are coming out with their own AI processors.

Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD have released their latest-generation AI processors which are driving PC sales this year.

With consistent upgrades to AI technology happening regularly, these processors will continue to upgrade at a faster pace, making people switch PCs more quickly.

The growth driven by the above factors is likely to continue in the next 12 months according to the research firm Canalys.

According to the research firm’s channel checks, 54% of the vendors surveyed are expecting growth this quarter.

The ongoing quarter should see enough demand due to the holiday season but that demand is unlikely to subside as improved AI technologies arrive, together with the Windows 10 end-of-life date.