According to Counterpoint Research, global shipments of personal computers in the second quarter of 2026 decreased by 4 percent compared to the same period last year. This is the first decrease since the first quarter of 2025. Experts attribute this trend to a significant increase in prices for components, in particular for DRAM RAM modules, which led to an increase in production costs. Despite continued commercial demand due to migration to new operating systems and the introduction of devices with support for artificial intelligence algorithms, high component costs are forcing manufacturers to raise retail prices and reduce the production of budget configurations.

An analysis of the market shares of leading manufacturers demonstrates uneven dynamics. The largest players, such as Lenovo, HP and Dell, recorded a decrease in shipments of 2, 8 and 6 percent, respectively. At the same time, Asus and Apple showed positive growth of 4 and 13 percent, which analysts partly attributed to the successful launch of the updated MacBook Neo line. However, the total sales volume of these brands turned out to be insufficient to compensate for the negative dynamics in the global market, as a result of which the total industry indicator remained in the negative zone.

The high cost of components had a direct impact on consumer behavior and the architecture of manufactured devices. Manufacturers have begun to optimize the specifications of materials, giving priority to more marginal premium systems. In the market of budget and gaming solutions, configurations using the previous generation DDR4 memory instead of modern DDR5, or with a single memory bar in single-channel mode, are increasingly common to reduce the total cost. Thus, the technological requirements for modern equipment, combined with the inflation of component prices, have created a significant barrier to the massive upgrade of the personal computer fleet by end users.