According to research firm IDC, Apple’s worldwide computer shipments decreased 40.5% year over year in the first quarter of 2023 despite a larger decline in customer demand.

Apple, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, the top five computer manufacturers, all experienced double-digit declines in first-quarter shipments as a result of weaker demand and ongoing inventory problems. But out of all of them, Apple’s decline was the greatest.

According to IDC data, Apple’s global PC market share decreased between the first quarters of 2022 and 2023, going from 8.6% to 7.2%. According to IDC, the corporation shipped 2.8 million fewer gadgets in the first quarter of 2023 than the previous year.

Not totally unexpected, though. In February, Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri stated that the company anticipated double-digit Mac and iPad sales decreases from the same quarter last year. The December quarter had a 28.66% year-over-year decline in Mac revenue. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, stated at the time that the difficult macroeconomic situation had an impact on sales of the iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch.

On Monday, Apple stock declined by more than 1.5%.

“The preliminary results also represented a coda to the era of COVID-driven demand and at least a temporary return to pre-COVID patterns,” IDC said.

“Even with heavy discounting, channels and PC makers can expect elevated inventory to persist into the middle of the year and potentially into the third quarter,” IDC researcher Jitesh Ubrani said in the report.

PC manufacturers will suffer in the near term, the IDC report said, with growth expected to pick back up by year-end.

There is potential upside for PC manufacturers, IDC said. Weakened demand gives companies a chance to finish “rejigging their plans” and iron out supply chain kinks. That breathing space will be quite helpful to companies such as Apple, which has started to push suppliers and assemblers to move their operations beyond China.

There were no comments on the issue available from Apple.

Apple is set to release its earnings report for its March quarter on May 4.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)