Omdia: Global PC Shipments Grew 3% in 1Q26 as Supply Chain Impacts Emerged

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 9, 2026--

According to the latest research from Omdia, total shipments of desktops, notebooks, and workstations in 1Q26 increased by 3.2% year-over-year to 64.8 million units. Notebooks (including mobile workstations) saw a modest year-over-year increase of 2.6% in Q1 to 50.8 million units. Meanwhile, desktops (including desktop workstations) performed slightly better, up 5.4% to 14.0 million units. Growth was supported by vendors and channel partners pulling orders forward ahead of a widely anticipated increase in component costs, the continuation of the Windows 10 replacement cycle that is still driving commercial refresh budgets, and by a heavier than usual slate of spring product launches across both Windows OEMs and Apple.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260409730915/en/

“With supply-chain pressures still building, Q1’s modest growth is likely to mark the high point for the year,” said Ben Yeh, Principal Analyst at Omdia. “Memory and storage costs are expected to rise further and more steeply than previously assumed from Q2, squeezing PC vendor gross margins and forcing them to pass costs through to channel partners and end-customers. AI data center build-outs are crowding consumer categories out of memory and storage supply, which have already seen roughly five-fold and three-fold cost increases respectively since Q1 2025. CPU prices are a smaller but compounding pressure, with Intel and AMD projecting increases of 10-25% into Q2.”

With costs set to rise across the bill of materials, vendors have every incentive to protect shipments, revenue and gross margin by pulling deliveries forward, and Omdia’s regional analysis is consistent with that behavior across most of Q1. Preliminary regional data suggest that channel partners in North America have already absorbed as much as they can before end‑user prices rise. In Japan, the market has begun to show a more pronounced downturn, weighed down by the high shipment volume base in 1Q25 and by more severe cost and component supply pressures in the education segment. Given the education-driven surge throughout 2025, fading policy momentum could also become one of the main drivers of contraction in 2026.

Lenovo remained firmly in the top spot in 1Q26, further expanding its market share with year-over-year growth of 8.7%. Shipments reached 16.5 million units, and its share surpassed 25%. HP remained in second place, but weak performance in Europe and the United States resulted in a 4.9% decline, with shipments falling to 12.1 million units. Dell continued its strong momentum from 4Q25, posting 7.8% year-over-year growth as shipments reached 10.3 million units. Apple reached a market share of 11% with shipments growing 5.4% due to solid MacBook Air sales performance and the initial sell-in of the MacBook Neo. Asus maintained its double-digit shipment growth, with shipments climbing to 4.6 million units and market share reaching 7.1%.

ABOUT OMDIA

Omdia, part of TechTarget, Inc. d/b/a Informa TechTarget (Nasdaq: TTGT), is a technology research and advisory group. Our deep knowledge of tech markets grounded in real conversations with industry leaders and hundreds of thousands of data points, make our market intelligence our clients’ strategic advantage. From R&D to ROI, we identify the greatest opportunities and move the industry forward.

DRAM and Storage Bill of Materials Costs' Increased $122-$237 from Q1 2025 to Q2 2026

Worldwide desktop and notebook shipments, 1Q23 to 1Q26

EQUIHEN BEACH, France (AP) — French authorities said that at least four people, two men and two women, died on Thursday as they were trying to get onboard an inflatable boat to attempt the perilous sea crossing from northern France to the U.K.

The prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region in northern France, François-Xavier Lauch, said 38 others were rescued, including one whose condition involved medical emergency. He spoke while rescue operations were still ongoing on Equihen Beach on Thursday morning.

Lauch said migrants were carried away by dangerous currents as they were trying to embark on a “taxi-boat,” the name authorities use for small motorized boats, usually inflatable, used by traffickers to pick up people along large stretches of the northern French coast.

Thursday's incident happened along a broad expanse of sand, backed by dunes and a forest where people attempting the perilous crossing hide out, sometimes for days at a time, as they wait for boats and suitable weather and sea conditions. Police patrol on buggies and keep watch from the remains of World War II-era bunkers but cannot prevent all departures on a beach so long.

Attempted crossings and deaths have surged in recent days. French maritime authorities said Wednesday 102 people have been rescued in two separate operations while trying to cross the channel. Last week, two people died in a similar incident off the coast north of Calais.

Unlike inflatable boats that migrants carry themselves into the water, so-called “taxi boats” set off largely empty from secluded spots along the coast and pick up migrants from prearranged rendezvous areas on beaches.

An Associated Press reporter attended such scenes on Wednesday in Malo-les-Bains, near Dunkirk.

Migrants wade into the sea, with adults carrying children in their arms or on their shoulders, then clamber aboard the inflatables that wait offshore. Once loaded up, they set off on the cross-channel journey, sometimes picking up more people along the way.

Depending on tides, weather and police patrols, migrants sometimes have to wade far from the water’s edge, up to their torsos, to reach the boats, increasing the risk of losing their footing, being caught by currents, or wading too deep.

Campaign groups for migrant rights have long warned that increasingly vigorous efforts by French police to prevent boat departures from beaches, including using knives to hack and puncture inflatable boats to render them unusable, are encouraging the use of “taxi boats,” which increases the risks of drownings, injuries and the need for rescues.

Migrants board a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Malo-les-Bains, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

Policemen walk past migrants as they board a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Malo-les-Bains, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

A policeman looks at migrants as they board a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Malo-les-Bains, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

Policemen look at migrants as they board a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Malo-les-Bains, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)