"If 2025 proved anything about PCs, it's that corporate IT will upgrade hardware out of necessity long before it does so out of AI-fueled excitement. According to new figures from Gartner released on Tuesday, worldwide PC shipments into the channel jumped 9.3 percent in Q4 and ended the year up 9.1 percent overall, marking the first meaningful rebound after a bruising post-pandemic slump."
"The analyst says the recovery was driven by channel shipments into the commercial market, not by consumers piling into stores or a sudden rush for AI PCs. In practice, that mostly means companies replacing old machines that were already overdue for retirement. In other words, this was less about AI PCs and more about businesses discovering that a five-year-old laptop running on borrowed time is not, in fact, a long-term IT strategy."
"The shift to Windows 11 is a big part of what finally forced the issue. As Microsoft steadily tightens the screws on older versions of Windows, IT departments are being left with little choice but to replace machines that can't meet the new OS's hardware requirements, whether or not they have any interest in Copilot, neural processing units, or other AI-flavored extras."
Worldwide PC shipments rose sharply, with channel shipments jumping 9.3 percent in Q4 and ending the year up 9.1 percent, marking the first meaningful rebound after a post-pandemic slump. The recovery was driven by commercial channel purchases as businesses replaced overdue machines rather than by consumer demand or AI-PC uptake. Tightening Windows 11 hardware requirements forced many IT departments to retire devices that could not meet the new specifications. Buyers continued to prioritize price, battery life, and performance over local AI acceleration. Late-year demand also increased as companies accelerated purchases to avoid expected memory and component price rises. Lenovo remained the global leader.
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