For some of the biggest names in IT, the boom years (2020-2021) are coming to an end.
Thanks to the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IT industry has returned to growth rates that it had not experienced for many years. Traditionally - for more than 20 years - it is indeed a question of the decline of the market of the PC called "desktop". The latter were forced to deal with competition from laptops. Then, the tablet trend hit the PC before, finally, the democratization of smartphones further limited the penetration of the "classic" computer.
Of course, after years of more or less important but still marked decline, the confinements forced by the Covid-19 and then the generalization of telework were like an upheaval. Millions of individuals, thousands of companies have been obliged to review their priorities and to equip themselves in a correct way in order to continue to exercise their activity, to entertain themselves. The "fixed" computer has regained its colors and, not only has the decline been stopped, but the growth has been remarkable. This was true in 2020, but also in 2021, and it was not until the end of last year that the first signs of slowing down were felt.
It must be said that once equipped with a state-of-the-art computer, there is no question of changing it 6, 12 or even 18 months later ... especially since it is not a question of a passionate public that is motivated by the latest technical innovations. As a result, sales started to slow down between Q3 2021 and Q2 2022. DigiTimes now goes further and anticipates a decline in sales of many IT products by the end of the year. We take the example of motherboards for which we talk about sales down by 20 to 30% compared to last year.
Companies like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI - the main motherboard manufacturers - expect the global PC sales to slow down to 321.1 million units sold in the whole year 2022. This is still an impressive figure, but it hardly masks a drop of 8.2% compared to 2021. Inevitably, the retail motherboard market suffers even more. Keep in mind, however, that there was something exceptional about the numbers in 2020 and 2021, and as such, the sale of 321.1 million PCs in 2022 is not a bad performance. The question is whether this decline will continue and even increase in the coming years.
