Overview
- Research firms report that PC unit shipments declined in Q2 2026 after nine quarters of growth, with totals falling to roughly 66–68 million units depending on the tracker.
- Analysts say the primary cause is a deepening memory (RAM) supply crunch that has tightened chip availability because data centers and geopolitical strains are bidding up supply.
- Apple was the only major vendor to grow shipments, driven by the MacBook Neo and stronger access to scarce memory, while Lenovo, HP, Dell and most smaller makers saw year‑over‑year declines.
- Vendors raised prices to pass higher costs for RAM, SSDs and other components, which lifted industry revenue even as unit demand cooled and left channel partners holding higher‑cost inventory.
- Forecasters warn memory tightness will likely persist into early 2028, which analysts say will slow growth in the second half of 2026 and favor large vendors with greater buying power.