The Notebook PC market is starting to see a new normal as pandemic demand and priorities shift from digitization while inflation limits household budgets and economic challenges do the same for businesses. As a result, global volumes were down -15% year-on-year in the second quarter. Despite these new challenges, notebook PC sales and ASPs are much better for all vendors compared to pre-COVID times and this trend will continue as customers are purchasing more premium products.

Consumer spending is now taking other priorities such as holiday, new clothes, and home improvement, while some are also taking financial precautions due to inflation and recession fears. The commercial business still looks solid compared to pre-pandemic level as SMB business continues to improve and provide the best hybrid working solutions, while some large enterprises are still leaning towards desktop PCs, including popular workstations, as people return to offices. We will see consumer spending improve a little bit in education in Q3 as shoppers want to get their hands on the latest laptops and huge Back-to-School discounts.

The Chromebook shipment decline continued from pandemic highs, falling by -53% year-over-year, as educational demand is lower in 2022, though shipments were 11% higher sequentially during the traditional quarter for purchases by educational institutions. HP felt the sting of these poor annual comparisons, with global HP shipments falling -29%. Currently, education spending is on hold over other priorities in many countries and we are confident that the Chromebook market will grow as soon as governments re-start spending on digitization.

The full report from Strategy Analytics’ Connected Computing Devices (CCD) service, Preliminary Global Notebook PC Shipments and Market Share: Q2 2022 Results can be found here: https://www.strategyanalytics.com/access-services/devices/tablets-and-pcs/connected-computing-devices/market-data/report-detail/preliminary-global-notebook-pc-shipments-and-market-share-q22022-results