Dive Brief:
- An anticipated enterprise PC refresh cycle drove up device shipments during the second quarter, according to Gartner research published Wednesday.
- Global PC shipments increased nearly 2% year over year, marking the third consecutive quarter of growth, the analyst firm said. The analysis identified more pronounced growth in the U.S., where shipments were up 3.4% year over year.
- AI optimized PCs did not drive purchasing behavior, according to Gartner Director Analyst Mikako Kitagawa. “The demand for AI PCs has been slow, as the product is still in the early introduction stage, and the real benefits of owning such a device are not yet clear to most buyers,” said Kitagawa in the report.
Dive Brief:
Enterprises were due to enter a device refresh cycle this year as hardware purchased to support remote work in 2020 approached retirement. A looming cliff for Windows 10 support, which will cease in October of next year, adds urgency to the effort.
“Businesses want to replace laptops and desktops before support runs out but we think that that surge is going to happen toward the end of this year and the beginning of next year,” Kitagawa said.
Global PC shipments began to bounce back this year as enterprises entered a refresh cycle
Most major PC manufacturers, including Lenovo, HP and Dell, introduced PCs outfitted with a Microsoft Copilot key and processors tailored for AI workloads during the first half of the year. But an industrywide AI PC marketing blitz has yet to move the needle for enterprises.
“Enterprises are replacing PCs due to age, not AI,” Kitagawa said.
Gartner expects the AI PC to nevertheless gain a foothold, accounting for as many as 1 in 5 units shipped by year’s end. The advantages of workstations with neural processing unit chips, Gartner’s definition of the AI PC, will surface as enterprises shift from piloting use cases to incorporating AI into workflows.
“Right now, most of the AI is in cloud so you don’t need to have an NPU on your PC,” Kitagawa said. Security concerns, among other factors such as cloud cost and latency issues, will drive everyday AI tools onto local devices, she added.
