Global desktop and laptop shipments increased 3% in the second quarter from a year earlier, with Apple and Acer posting the biggest gains, posting 20.8% and 13.7% growth, respectively, according to research firm IDC.

Two consecutive quarters of growth combined with excitement around AI PCs and a new PC upgrade cycle seem to be what the PC market needs right now, said Ryan Reith, vice president of IDC.

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Apple was the fastest growing PC maker in the second quarter. Photo: Bloomberg

The PC market has been in a historic slump for the past few years after consumers, businesses, and schools made new purchases in 2020 and 2021 and then paused their purchases. Analyst Amit Daryanani at Evercore ISI believes a new buying cycle is underway.

Computer makers are aggressively promoting AI PCs, devices designed to run artificial intelligence (AI) tasks, to customers. IDC said only about 3% of PCs shipped this year were optimized for AI.

Dell Technologies was the only major name to see a decline in sales in the second quarter, down 2.4%. China's Lenovo led the market with nearly 23% market share. HP recorded a 1.8% increase and came in second, behind Lenovo, with 21% market share.

Weak demand in China held back the broader market. Excluding the mainland, global PC shipments rose more than 5%. In the three months ended June, 64.9 million PCs were shipped.

(According to Bloomberg)