While Apple and Samsung led the tablet market, Acer stood first in the Chromebook rankings for this quarter
As per the latest reports, the worldwide PC (including tablet) market witnessed a fifth consecutive year-on-year (YoY) decline in the third quarter of 2022. The total quarterly shipments, which stood at 105.6 million units, were up by a meagre 1% from Q2 2022, while declining by 14% YoY. The report released by Canalys pointed out that the demand across all product categories and end-user segments was stifled by worsening macroeconomic conditions, given the cautious approach adopted by consumers as well as by businesses. According to Canalys’ PC Analysis, tablet shipments fell 6% to 35.3 million units, and Chromebook shipments were down 29% to 4.2 million units.
In the tablet market, Apple stood first, though its iPad shipments fell 6% YoY to 14.4 million units. Samsung followed with 6.6 million unit shipments, with a relatively modest decline of 8%. Given the heavy discounting of its Fire tablets for Prime Day, Amazon stood at the third position with an 18% growth in its shipments.
In the Chromebook rankings, Acer stood first in the post-saturation market in Q3. With 11% growth and over a million units shipped, it managed to capture around 25% of overall shipments. HP was placed second after suffering heavier declines than other vendors in recent quarters. Lenovo and Dell, both experienced a decline in shipments.
Saying that Q3 brought further pressure to the Chromebook market as education demand saturation continued to take its toll, Canalys Research Analyst Brian Lynch added, “Since the education market first showed signs of saturation in Q3 2021, vendors have struggled to find growth opportunities in other segments while managing high inventory levels. A fall in Chromebook demand was expected in the second half of 2021 but the extent of the decline has been worsened by economic headwinds, limiting education budgets and stemming any momentum among consumers and businesses. The current situation of high inventory levels and low demand has dented enthusiasm for Chromebooks for some vendors. Windows-based education PCs have attracted more interest as they will offer alternative sales opportunities in future instances of erratic education demand. Still, global education demand strongly favours Chromebooks as they account for the bulk of the installed base and are preferred by IT administrators across the US education system. Upcoming spikes in education demand will continue to benefit Chromebooks more than competing devices.”
Canalys is an independent analyst company that delivers smart market insights to IT, channel and service provider professionals around the world. Canalys’ PC Analysis service provides quarterly updated shipment data to help with accurate market sizing, competitive analysis and identifying growth opportunities in the market.
