Data from research firms Omdia and IDC both point to a sharp global PC slowdown in the third quarter of 2026: Omdia estimates 58.1 million desktops, notebooks and workstations shipped, down 21.2% year over year, while IDC counts 62.7 million units, down 20.1% year over year and 9.1% quarter over quarter, breaking the usual seasonal pattern. Both firms attribute the slump largely to memory and storage price increases, as AI data-center demand for DRAM, HBM and high-speed storage squeezes supply for consumer PCs; Omdia says DRAM and SSDs now account for nearly 40% of a PC's bill of materials, up from about 15%. Omdia cites a mainstream laptop that sold for $699 in Q1 2025 with roughly $435 in parts, versus about $699 in parts for a comparable configuration in Q3 2026, and reports HP shipments fell about 31% while Apple's Macs fell about 11.3%. Separately, Microsoft says its testing shows Windows 11 26H2 can cut post-reboot memory use by up to about 2GB, and it aims to make the OS run better on 8GB machines by the end of 2026.

Omdia·IDC·Microsoft·+5