Windows 10, huh, what is it good for? PC upgrade cycles actually

It transpires that Windows 11 is indeed good for at least one thing - driving PC upgrades, according to the latest figures from Gartner.

The analyst today published figures showing worldwide PC shipments reached 69 million units in calendar Q3, up 8.2 percent year-on-year. These were devices sold to resellers and distributors, not end customers.

Rishi Padhi, research principal at Gartner, noted the figures were somewhat skewed because North American growth was pulled forward in Q1 and Q2 due to worries about impending import tariffs. As such, the region's growth was limited to 1.6 percent while demand in most other continents was fueled by the Windows 10 end-of-support (EOS) commercial refresh cycle.

"Conversely," said Padhi, "consumer demand remained subdued at the lower price points, impacted by persistent geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds. Consumers continue to exhibit cautious spending behavior - delaying PC purchases and seeking promotional offers."

Padhi also noted the uptick of AI PCs, forecast to account for 31 percent of shipments in 2025, up from 15 percent in 2024. The stats are, however, being driven by industry rather than customer demand. As The Register observed before, it will become increasingly difficult to buy a PC that doesn't contain an NPU - an on‑chip AI accelerator - in the coming years, even if there remains no killer application for the technology.

The top five vendor ranking in terms of shipments is unchanged from a year ago, and all experienced unit sales growth. Lenovo remains leader of the pack with 27.8 percent of the market in Q3 2025, up from 25.8 percent in the previous year.

HP is second, with 21.5 percent, and Dell is third with a share that dipped slightly to 14.5 percent, down from 15.4 percent in Q3 2024.

Any hopes in Cupertino that the Windows 10 end of support cycle might lead to a surge in demand for Apple Mac hardware were dashed. Gartner estimates Apple remained a solid fourth in the list, despite a slight uptick in market share from 8.7 percent to 8.9 percent.

Shipments in Q3 might not be the double digit bonanza the PC industry hoped for, surfing on a wave of Windows 10 computer refreshes - remember the hardware requirements for Windows 11? Eco-campaigner certainly do - though it is a marked improvement on recent years.

However, once the Windows 11 furor has died down, the PC market will need another shot in the arm to generate growth. Vendors expect this to come from AI applications, however, customers are not so sure. ®