New PC purchases see sharpest drop in nearly three years as memory and storage prices bite — shipments fall by 7%, analysts forecast 14% contraction that will hit budget laptops hard

Two images of laptops at Computex, with a render of an array of them in the bottom half.

Shipment of new PCs in the U.S. fell to 15.8 million units, dropping by 7% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026. According to research firm Omdia, this was the biggest drop in quarterly deliveries since the third quarter of 2023, and it’s primarily driven by supply shortages as well as the accompanying price increases for memory and storage chips. The threat of tariffs and the Windows 11 refresh cycle — driven by the end of Windows 10 support — has also inflated shipments last year, resulting in reduced orders today.

Go deeper with TH Premium: AI shortages