AI-Capable PC Shipments Set to Surge in 2024, with Apple Leading the Charge

AI PCs Account For 14% Of Total PC Shipments: 8.8 Million Units Sold In Q2 2024

Worldwide PC shipments saw a whopping 8.8 million AI PC sales in Q2 alone, doubling the sales compared to the first quarter. With the booming AI demand, AI-oriented hardware shipments are on the rise. PC hardware manufacturers are now focusing on developing specific hardware for AI applications to handle machine learning algorithms. Major chipmakers such as Intel, AMD & Qualcomm have added significantly faster NPU hardware into their latest SOCs to make sure that they are MS Copilot+ certified. The drastic change in the hardware market can be seen from the PC sales, which just doubled in the second quarter of 2024. According to the market research agency, Canalys, about 8.8 million AI PCs were shipped globally in the second quarter. This is twice as many AI-boosted systems that were shipped in the first quarter this year. AI PC accounted for 14% of the total PC shipments in the second quarter, marking a major shift in the tech landscape. Partners working on these next-generation products are also showing heightened optimism with demand going up. Compared to this recent stat, AI systems had only 7% of total sales in the first quarter. AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and other major hardware manufacturers have put their focus and efforts into the latest-gen chips and it is expected that the sales of AI PCs will increase in the upcoming quarters as well. The Principal Analyst at Canalys, Ishan Dutt said, "The quarter added significant momentum to the expansion of AI PCs." He cites Qualcomm's Snapdragon X-series chips for AI PCs, AMD's Ryzen AI 300 series of mobile processors, and Intel's Core Ultra chipset as one of the major reasons for the boost in sales. However, it looks like Apple is taking over the Windows-based AI PCs since MacOS accounts for almost 60% of the total share in Q2. Windows comes in second place with 39% of the total share and ChromeOS takes the third place with just 1% share. Nonetheless, Windows AI PCs costing above US$800 saw two times higher share in the second quarter and the shipments increased by 127% month-over-month. Lenovo, HP, and Dell were the major brands for selling the highest number of Windows-based systems with 6%, 8%, and 7% shares respectively. This year we saw the launch of Lenovo's Yoga Slim 7x and ThinkPad T14s with Snapdragon X-series processors while HP and Dell went with the latest Core Ultra processors for their lineups. According to Ishan, PC OEMs played a major role in the growth of AI PCs in the market, which is also evident from the fact that PC manufacturers are launching AI processors-equipped new laptops and mini-PCs very often. Expect more products to launch throughout 2024, especially during the upcoming back-to-school and the holiday season which is just a few months away.

AI-capable PCs are making their mark in global sales

These types of PCs represented 14pc of all PC sales last quarter, double the market share they had in the first quarter of the year as the AI craze continues. Global PC sales are witnessing a change, as AI-capable PCs managed to gain a significant foothold in the market. That's according to a new report from Canalys, which found that 8.8m AI-capable PCs were sold in the second quarter of 2024, 14pc of all PCs shipped that quarter. The report defines AI-capable PCs as desktops and notebooks that "include a chipset or block for dedicated AI workloads, such as an NPU". This shows a major increase in a short timeframe - AI-capable PCs made up 7pc of total sales in the first quarter of 2024. The Canalys report predicts that there will be a significant ramp-up in sales for these PC types. "With a strong foundation now set, AI-capable PC shipments are poised to gain further traction in the second half of 2024," said Canalys principle analyst Ishan Dutt. "Processor vendors and OEMs are set to target a wider base of customers through new product category availability across more price points. Meanwhile, channel partners are signalling a preference for AI-related features in PCs." Roughly 60pc of the AI-capable PCs sold in the last quarter were MacOS devices, while nearly 40pc were Windows PCs. Microsoft recently released its range of Copilot+ PCs. "While shipment volumes in the quarter were relatively small due to the limited weeks and geographical coverage of availability, the broad commitment of Windows OEMs to adopt these products into their portfolios bodes well for the category's outlook," Dutt said. Dutt added that Intel increased the delivery of its Core Ultra chipsets during the last quarter and AMD announced its Ryzen AI 300 series of notebook processors. The report comes amid a comeback for PC sales worldwide, after the market hit record low levels in recent years. PC sales shrunk by nearly 29pc in the first quarter of 2023 - described by some reports as the "lowest point" in PC history. Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Macs dominate 'AI-capable' PC shipments - for now

According to a report by technology market analyst firm Canalys, the last quarter -- Q2 2024 -- saw an estimated 8.8 million AI-capable PCs shipped, with Apple Mac systems accounting for 60% of those sales. Additionally, when looking at $800+ Windows PCs, AI-capable PC shipments jumped from 7% in Q1 2024 to 14% in Q2 2024. Does this mean that there's growing interest in PCs that can handle emerging workloads, or is AI capability becoming a standard feature? Before looking at that, let's clarify a few things. Also: What is an AI PC? (And should you buy one?) First, what is an "AI-capable PC"? Canalys says that an "AI-capable PC must be a desktop or notebook possessing a dedicated chipset or block to run on-device AI workloads," and goes on to highlight AMD's XDNA, Apple's Neural Engine, Intel's AI Boost, and Qualcomm's Hexagon as examples of such dedicated chipsets. The next point that always comes up when discussing the whole concept of AI-capable PCs is whether "AI-capable" is marketing fluff or something definitive and useful. The argument can be made both ways - some will claim that AI workloads are nothing new and that it's just the type of workloads that have changed, while the point can also be made that modern AI workloads go beyond what the CPU and GPU can comfortably handle without making too many compromises, and that dedicated NPUs (Neural Processing Units) are needed to back up existing silicon and keep everything moving along. I'm old enough to have seen the "this is marketing fluff" argument made numerous times about new PC features. Making and selling PCs is a business, so there will always be marketing. However, workloads change, and progress must be made. Also: 'SinkClose' AMD CPU vulnerability explained: How dangerous is it really? And AI workloads are the latest new thing. But we can tease some additional data from the Canalys report that might shed light on consumer interest in AI workloads. A fact that's hard to overlook from the data is that Apple Macs account for 60% of the 8.8 million AI-capable PC shipments. Since Apple made the switch to its M-series chips in November 2020 and began purging Intel CPUs from the Mac, dedicated neural engines have been built into those chips as standard, making NPUs the default. When most consumers buy a Mac, they're not choosing an AI-capable system, they're getting one by default. The same can't be said for x86 processors, where AI support has been lagging. Dedicated NPUs form part of chips such as the AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Intel Core Ultra, but these are premium chips and not mainstream silicon, and as such will only be offered in higher-end systems. Also: If Intel can't come up with a Qualcomm-killer soon, it's game over for x86 PCs So, what about that 7 to 14% jump between Q1 and Q2? Is it an increased demand for AI-capable PCs or a side-effect of more chips having NPUs built in? It's a mixture of both. "AI-capable" is clearly a buzzword of this upgrade cycle, and enterprise decision-makers looking to upgrade old hardware are going to be wary of investing in hardware that might be obsolete before its time if AI workloads become more common in mainstream applications. NPUs are also going to become more prevalent in systems in that $800+ category, which means that high-end systems will also drive the adoption of neural engines, making it an expectation for higher-end systems. Then let's not forget that Microsoft is just as much a part of the PC upgrade cycle as the hardware manufacturers, and is pushing the idea of AI being the next wave that no one wants to miss out on with it's Copilot AI chatbot, and this feature will push the adoption of NPUs further and faster. Also: What CPU and motherboard do I have? Here are some fast and easy ways to find out There's no doubt that, as AI workloads become more commonplace, NPUs will make it into more and more PCs, and it's only a matter of time until these chips are no longer seen as specialist.