A new report from IDC found that while the overall PC market saw a slight year-over-year increase in unit shipments in the first quarter, Apple had one of the strongest growth rates among its peers. Here are the details:
Parts shortages are ‘starting to impact’ the PC market
According to reports (via) mcroomers), Apple shipped 6.2 million Macs in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 9.1% year over year, and market share rose to 9.5% from 8.9% a year ago.
However, the biggest gainer was ASUS, which grew by 17.1% year-on-year and reached a market share of 7.2%.
Still, Apple and ASUS rank fourth and fifth in IDC’s global traditional PC shipments, behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell.
Lenovo led the way with 16.5 million shipments, an increase of 8.6%, followed by HP with 12.1 million shipments, a decrease of 4.9%, and Dell with 10.3 million shipments, an increase of 7.7%.
The IDC for these numbers is:
Although positive growth was recorded in the first quarter of 2026, component shortages and deteriorating economic conditions are starting to impact the PC market, as evidenced by a sharp decline in growth trends across regions. IDC believes PC shipments will decline further for the remainder of this year as system prices continue to rise.
IDC added that the component shortage continues to “test the strength of each PC vendor’s supply chain and ability to access core components such as memory,” and that demand is expected to favor “PC vendors with device portfolios that provide the most secure access to memory and address all price points in the market.”
What this means for Apple
In the case of Apple, we’ve seen limited availability on multiple Macs, especially models with higher RAM configurations or more advanced customization.
For example, some Mac Studio configurations are currently on backorders of up to five months, and there are signs that other Mac models will also have limited availability in certain configurations.
In its last earnings call, Apple expressed confidence when asked about the impact of the shortage, but also said the impact, particularly on margins, would be more pronounced in the March quarter.
Apple’s next earnings report is scheduled for April 30th, and parts shortages should be a major topic of discussion during the post-earnings conference call.
Click this link to see IDC’s full report.
Worth checking out on Amazon
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