Omdia and IDC both report a steep year-over-year decline in global PC shipments for Q3 2026, but their estimates differ: 58.1 million devices from Omdia and 62.7 million from IDC.
The figures offer a useful comparison of how the same market can be measured and reported by different research firms.
Omdia estimated that shipments of desktops and laptops, along with their business workstation counterparts, fell 21,2% from the third quarter of 2025 to 58,1 million units. According to the company, it was the biggest drop since the first quarter of 2023. Desktop shipments fell 23,5% to 11,7 million, while laptop shipments fell 20,6% to 46,4 million.
IDC estimated that shipments fell 20,1% to 62,7 million PCs from 78,5 million in the same period in 2025. According to the company, this was the largest drop it has ever seen in a third quarter. Compared to the second quarter of 2026, when 68,2 million PCs were shipped, shipments were down 9,1%.
The decline stands out because PC shipments are typically higher in the third quarter than in the second. Jitesh Ubrani, research director for consumer devices at IDC, told PCMag that in recent years, there have been larger declines in other quarters: 28,2% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and 28,7% in the first quarter of 2023. Both periods followed the surge in demand caused by the pandemic.
According to IDC, many PC makers and retailers had stockpiled earlier in the year in anticipation of memory price increases, which led to lower demand for PCs in the third quarter. Ubrani said vendors are worried about running up too much inventory as high prices curb demand.
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