PC sales set for a 2026 downturn as memory demand hits other devices

• 2025 saw healthy PC market growth, but 2026 is set to be far more turbulent
• Memory and storage prices are rising, and it's not good for consumers
• Budget devices could see the biggest price increases

Despite rising 9.2% year-over-year in 2025 (and 10.1% in Q4 2025), analysts at Omdia are worried global PC shipments could fall in 2026 due to rising costs and mounting pressure from AI data centers.

The firm's data claims mainstream PC memory costs rose by around 70% throughout 2025 as a whole, with vendors even beginning to warn customers of price rises towards the end of the year. And even more worrying, analysts have already predicted a further 50% rise in the first quarter of 2026.

With memory manufacturers prioritizing high-margin server DRAM and HBM destined for data centers, production of mainstream DDR memory for PCs has suffered, and ...