Major PC vendors are preparing for fierce price-cutting competition as stock levels of their inventory at channel distributors remain high, according to industry insiders that spoke to DigiTimes.
DigiTimes previously reported that a senior Acer executive said discounts were coming during the year-end holiday season as one of the ways PC makers are looking to clear excess inventory.
Apple recently launched a rare 10% discount offer to businesses that purchase MacBook Pro models in bulk.
Based on the latest report, it appears that more PC manufacturers will be slashing prices to keep up with their rivals.
Modest price cuts might not be enough to convince customers to get new systems, as many would have already got new machines during the upgrade “supercycle” that started in 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic spurred demand for notebooks and PC hardware to enable people to work from home, leading to record sales of computers in the past two years.
But that trend has shifted significantly. PC manufacturers are finding it tough to gain new customers, and consumers have come under pressure from high inflation.
According to data from the IDCPC sales slumped significantly in the third quarter of 2022, dropping by 15% compared to the same period last year.
Several of the world’s biggest PC companies — including Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo — saw substantial drops in sales during the quarter.
HP and Dell saw the worst drop-offs, selling 27.8% and 21.2% fewer PCs during the period, while Apple was the lone winner among the top five makers during the period.
It sold 40.2% more computers, but that was only due to making up for lost shipment volumes from Covid-19-induced manufacturing delays in China during the second quarter of the year.
The table below shows the year-over-year changes in PC shipments among the world’s top 5 computer manufacturers in the third quarters of 2021 and 2022.
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