Dell says Windows 11 transition is far slower than Win 10 shift, yet PC sales have stalled

Dell has predicted PC sales will be flat next year, despite the potential of the AI PC and the slow replacement of Windows 10.

“We have not completed the Windows 11 transition,” COO Jeffrey Clarke said during Dell’s Q3 earnings call on Tuesday. “In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS end of support, we are 10-12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation.”

Clarke said that means 500 million PCs can’t run Windows 11, while the same number didn’t need an upgrade to handle Microsoft’s latest desktop OS. The COO therefore predicted the PC market will “flourish”, but then defined the word as meaning “roughly flat” sales despite Dell chalking up mid-to high single digits PC sales growth over the last year.

Dell can survive flat PC growth because its enterprise AI ...