According to a preliminary report issued by IDC today, Apple saw the strongest year-over-year growth during Q2 compared to its closest competitors in the PC market, except in the U.S., where sales basically flatlined. Here are the details

Based on today’s numbers, Apple outpaced the competition by a lot, with 21.4% growth year-over-year. However, it came up once again in fourth place with 9.1% market share.

In practice, that translated to 6.2 million PCs shipped worldwide, up from 5.1 million in the same quarter last year. Still, Apple lagged behind Dell’s 9.8 million, HP’s 14.1 million, and Lenovo’s 17 million shipped units.

However, if in the last quarter, “the entire ecosystem attempted to accelerate the pace of deliveries to avoid the first round of US tariffs and expected volatility for the remainder of the year”, as IDC’s Jean Philippe Bouchard put it, this quarter proved just how much that trend may have front-loaded demand.

With inventories still being worked through and buyers wary of looming price hikes, the U.S. market recorded 0% growth during Q2, even as the rest of the world grew 9%.

Outlook for Q3: Cautiously optimistic, with potential promotions ahead

Here’s Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Device Trackers:

“We realize growth in such an indeterminate market seems odd, but many factors come into play supporting the momentum. (…) The supply side of the industry is doing its best to navigate the unknowns as no one wants to sit on their heels and potentially miss an opportunity, but at the same time it is very risky carrying inventory which is a possibility given the strong first half sell-in. The bigger concern is what overall demand looks like as we get late into Q3 and beyond. Price increases will likely be dispersed over time and geography depending on vendor strategy which can potentially lead to some attractive promotions as a way to clear inventory backups, which seems odd at a time when prices are expected to rise because of tariffs.”

In other words, as vendors push shipments to get ahead of potential tariff-driven price hikes, while knowing full well that demand might not hold up later in the year, we could end up seeing clearance-style promotions in Q3, even as prices are technically on the rise.

Overall, the global PC market grew 6.5% year-over-year, reaching 68.4 million units. That fell in line with IDC’s previous expectations, and marked another positive quarter for the industry, caveats aside.

Source: 9to5mac