Apple is most affected when the PC market plunges

## **The whole PC industry was gloomy in the first quarter of 2023, in which Apple was hit hard when shipments fell 40.5% year-on-year.** Reuters quoted a new report by research firm IDC showed that in the first three months of the year, global PC shipments were estimated at 56.9 million units, down 29% from 80.2 million in the same period last year. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the global computer market also decreased by 28.1%. The main reasons are weak market demand, large inventory and deteriorating macroeconomic situation. Among the top computer manufacturing companies, Apple caught the eye when the number of units shipped fell 40.5% year-on-year in 2022. Dell fell second with 31%. Lenovo, Asus, HP are also not immune to the negative growth of the market. Earlier in February, during the financial report, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted this was a difficult period for the company when total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2022 fell 5%, MacBook revenue decreased 29% over the same period. Sources of The Elec said that Apple even had to suspend production of M2 chips in January and February due to plummeting Mac sales. This is the first time the company has stopped producing integrated chips in products that are still on the market. Production resumed in March, but output was only half that of last year’s M1 chip. According to experts, the M2 chip series is considered to be one of the best processor chips, so the two-month shutdown shows that the demand for purchasing computers is much lower than Apple’s prediction. IDC’s report shows that the decline of the PC market is proportional to user demand after Covid-19. When life gradually returns to normal, working, learning and communication models are resumed, and the demand for computer shopping is no longer high. “The slowdown is also an opportunity for factories as they start looking into supply chains outside of China. Fears of a recession are not over yet. Chaos in the banking sector has exacerbated it further. on the risk of high inflation. The trend of tightening spending will continue to affect the market in the future”, IDC said. Linn Huang, IDC’s Vice President of Research, added: “If the economy tends to rebound in 2024, the market could warm, consumers will likely find new devices. Schools will change. Chromebooks are old and businesses will aggressively upgrade their old systems. But if the recession continues in key markets, the PC industry’s recovery next year will not be positive.”