Growth Driven by Windows 11 Upgrades and Increased Inventory Ahead of Upcoming Memory Price Hikes and Shortages
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, 20 January 2026: Worldwide PC shipments totaled 71.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2025, a 9.3% increase from the fourth quarter of 2024, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company. For the full year, worldwide PC shipments totaled more than 270 million units, a 9.1% increase from 2024.
“The PC market maintained healthy growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, largely driven by robust consumer demand and business demand fueled by the Windows 11 upgrade cycle,” said Rishi Padhi, Research Principal at Gartner. “Demand softened by the end of the quarter as price pressure and promotions offset earlier price increases on high-end GPUs and AI PCs, resulting in stable or slightly lower average selling prices.”
There were no major changes in the top six vendor rankings worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2025 (see Table 1), with the top three vendors - Lenovo, HP Inc. and Dell - increasing their market share year-over-year.
Table 1: Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q25 (Thousands of Units)
Company | 4Q25 Shipments | 4Q25 Market Share (%) | 4Q24 Shipments | 4Q24 Market Share (%) | 4Q25-4Q24 Growth (%) |
Lenovo | 19,437 | 27.2 | 17,004 | 26.0 | 14.3 |
HP Inc. | 15,392 | 21.5 | 13,730 | 21.0 | 12.1 |
Dell | 11,783 | 16.5 | 9,970 | 15.2 | 18.2 |
Apple | 6,689 | 9.4 | 6,327 | 9.7 | 5.7 |
ASUS | 4,851 | 6.8 | 4,718 | 7.2 | 2.8 |
Acer | 4,165 | 5.8 | 4,131 | 6.3 | 0.8 |
Others | 9,180 | 12.8 | 9,529 | 14.6 | -3.7 |
Total | 71,496 | 100.0 | 65,409 | 100.0 | 9.3 |
Notes: Data includes desktop and laptop PCs that are equipped with Windows, macOS and Chrome OS. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.
Source: Gartner (January 2026)
Annual Overview: Tariffs, Memory Hikes, Windows 11 Upgrades Drove Growth
In 2025, the PC market rebounded, achieving 9.1% growth over 2024, with more than 270 million units shipped (see Table 2). This marks a significant turnaround following two years of steep decline in 2022 and 2023, and only modest gains in 2024.
Table 2: Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2025 (Thousands of Units)
Company | 2025 Shipments | 2025 Market Share (%) | 2024 Shipments | 2024 Market Share (%) | 2025-2024 Growth (%) |
Lenovo | 73,567 | 27.2 | 62,542 | 25.3 | 17.6 |
HP Inc. | 57,457 | 21.3 | 53,035 | 21.4 | 8.3 |
Dell | 41,392 | 15.3 | 39,448 | 15.9 | 4.9 |
Apple | 24,826 | 9.2 | 22,504 | 9.1 | 10.3 |
ASUS | 18,512 | 6.9 | 17,351 | 7.0 | 6.7 |
Acer | 16,963 | 6.3 | 16,927 | 6.8 | 0.2 |
Others | 37,501 | 13.9 | 35,839 | 14.5 | 4.6 |
Total | 270,218 | 100.0 | 247,646 | 100.0 | 9.1 |
Notes: Data includes desktop and laptop PCs that are equipped with Windows, macOS and Chrome OS. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.
Source: Gartner (January 2026)
“Tariff volatility, anticipated memory price hikes in 2026, and rising costs associated with Windows 10 Extended Security Updates prompted businesses to prioritize replacing hardware,” said Padhi. “Another factor for growth in 2025 was vendors focused heavily on promoting AI PCs to capture replacement demand. However, most AI PC features, such as local inference, have yet to deliver significant productivity gains compared to cloud-based AI solutions. As a result, many organizations are upgrading primarily to future-proof their fleets, rather than to realize immediate business value from AI capabilities.”
