Global personal computer (PC) shipments grew 9.6% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, reaching 76.4 million units, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. And it was kinda good news for Apple.
Whereas Omdia says Mac sales grew 1.9% annually in the fourth quarter, IDC says the growth was only 0.2%.
According to IDC, Apple sold 7.1 million personal computers in quarter four of 2025 for 9.3% global market share. This makes Apple the fourth larges PC vendor worldwide.
Ahead of it are Lenovo (25.3% market share), HP (20.1% market share), and Dell (15.3% market share). You should note that, like Omdia, IDC doesn’t count the iPad as a personal computer.
The fourth quarter 2025 results cap off a tumultuous year for the PC market, marked by the end of support for Windows 10, which drove a wave of upgrade demand, and early year tariff concerns that prompted vendors to pull forward more inventory than originally planned. While the holiday season typically drives stronger demand, the surge in late 2025 was further amplified by emerging memory shortages that led buyers and brands to secure inventory ahead of anticipated price increases in 2026.
“IDC expects that the PC market will be far different in 12 months given how quickly the memory situation is evolving,” says Jean Philippe Bouchard, research vice-president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “Beyond the obvious pressure on prices of systems, already announced by certain manufacturers, we might also see PC memory specifications be lowered on average to preserve memory inventory on hand. The year ahead is shaping up to be extremely volatile.”
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today