Shipments by all PC manufacturers decreased by 29% to 56.9 million devices as the demand boom brought on by remote work during the epidemic fizzled.

Shipments of personal computers by Apple Inc. fell by 40.5% in the first quarter, signaling a difficult start to the year for PC manufacturers who are still coping with an excess of unsold inventory.

According to the most recent estimate from IDC, shipments by all PC manufacturers collectively plummeted 29% to 56.9 million units — and fell below the levels of early 2019 — as the demand boom caused by pandemic-era remote work faded. Lenovo Group Ltd., Dell Technologies Inc., and HP Inc. were among the industry leaders to experience declines of over 30%. No well-known brand escaped the slowdown; Asustek Computer Inc. completed the top 5 with a 30.3% decline.

Double-digit drops in smartphone sales over the past year and an increasing surplus among the top memory chip suppliers worldwide are the results of the slowdown in consumer spending. After reporting its smallest profit since the 2009 financial crisis, Samsung Electronics Co., which supplies memory for portable devices as well as desktop and laptop PCs, announced last week that it is reducing memory output.

Although channel inventory has decreased recently, it is still significantly higher than the ideal range of four to six weeks, according to Jitesh Ubrani, IDC research manager. “Channels and PC makers can expect elevated inventory to persist into the middle of the year and possibly into the third quarter, even with heavy discounting.”

As many companies start to look into production choices outside of China, the cooling demand is giving manufacturers the time and space “to make changes,” according to IDC in the research. As simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing threaten to destabilize its meticulously planned supply chain, Apple is progressively expanding the geographic scope of its manufacturing base.

IDC researchers predict that the global economy will be recovering as well as aged technology that will need to be updated in 2024, which might lead to a potential resurgence for PC manufacturers.

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