Global PC shipments rose 4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, producing a result that ran counter to expectations of falling demand in the global commerce market this year. As the pace of gains in PC DRAM prices slows, Intel and AMD are expanding AI PC portfolios across the board and monitor displays are moving upmarket. That is adding weight to the possibility of a shift to real demand in the second half.

Gartner said proactive inventory building to brace for rising memory prices, so-called "memflation", lifted shipments above real demand. Rishi Padhi (리시 파디), a Gartner research principal, said suppliers and distributors increased inventories ahead of price hikes in the second quarter due to a surge in DRAM and NAND component costs. He added that it was particularly pronounced in low-margin product lines. In the first quarter of last year, shipments were also inflated as volumes were imported in advance ahead of U.S. tariffs, creating a structure in which shipments exceed real demand for a second straight year.

Fortunes differed by vendor. Gartner said Lenovo grew 9.5 percent year on year and cemented the top spot with a 26.5 percent share, while Apple grew 12.7 percent, led by the MacBook Neo, lifting its share to 10.6 percent from 9.8 percent. Padhi said the MacBook Neo drove steady demand, centred on new Mac users and the education market, effectively absorbing price-sensitive consumers. HP, by contrast, contracted 4.9 percent and its share fell to 19.3 percent from 21.1 percent. Asus moved into fifth place, growing 10.8 percent and overtaking Acer.

While memflation did inflate shipments, it is notable that the slope of PC DRAM price increases is becoming gentler. A phase in which gains ease after a sharp run-up can instead become a foundation for demand to broaden. That is because PC makers can step up new product launches and promotions in a period when pressure from component costs eases.

IBK Investment & Securities said the price of PC 16GB DDR5 continues to rise to $84.1 in the second quarter from $66.7 in the first quarter, and to $162.7 in the third quarter. But the upward revision from March estimates is smaller than the increase from February estimates. Server 64GB DDR5 is also set to rise to $879 to $923 in the third quarter from $696 to $703 in the first quarter, while the quarter-on-quarter rate of increase is slowing.

With cost pressure easing as PC DRAM price increases slow, the key question is whether the inventory effect driven by memflation will lead to a shift to real demand in the second half. Another question is whether replacement demand after the second quarter can absorb the increase in component prices.

OUTLOOK: PC SHIPMENTS RISE AFTER CONSUMERS HELD BACK; SECOND HALF SEEN AS REAL TEST

A generational shift in AI PC platforms has overlapped with these conditions. Intel launched its latest Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake), based on its 18A process, in January and expanded its AI PC portfolio across the board. GPU performance improved 77 percent from the previous generation, CPU performance rose 60 percent, and AI compute roughly doubled. The platform delivers total AI performance of 180 TOPS and supports local operation of a 7 billion-parameter large language model (LLM).

Samsung Electronics added Panther Lake to its Galaxy Book6 series, while LG Electronics adopted it in the Gram Pro 2026, replacing their lineups in tandem. At the time, Tae-won Baek (백태원), head of Intel Korea, said the share of Intel chip-based AI PCs had already surpassed 40 percent in major retail channels as of 2025.

AMD also unveiled the Ryzen AI 400 series at MWC 2026, expanding AI PCs from laptops to desktops. With up to 50 TOPS NPU, it is the first desktop processor to support Copilot+ PCs and will be launched from the second quarter through OEMs including HP and Lenovo. Its mobile line, the Ryzen AI Pro 400 series, touted up to a 30 percent lead in multithread performance over Intel Core Ultra and expanded into business laptops and mobile workstations.

Qualcomm, which has declared entry into the PC market and is expanding, is also stepping up its push into the Windows market with the Snapdragon X series. In South Korea, it opened a second experience zone at Lotte Hi-Mart's Jamsil branch and is expanding consumer touchpoints by placing products from six manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, Asus and HP, in one place.

A move upmarket on the display side is also clear. Samsung Display said cumulative shipments of QD-OLED for monitors surpassed 5 million units in March. The milestone comes 4 years after mass production began, and the average annual growth rate exceeds 320 percent. Omdia expects the share of self-emissive panels in the premium monitor market priced above $500 to expand to 41 percent this year from 22 percent in 2024.

Samsung Display has worked with 20 global customers to launch about 150 types of QD-OLED monitors. It posted a 75 percent share last year in the self-emissive monitor display segment, based on shipments. It is also applying a low-reflection, high-strength film called "Quantum Black" to raise product competitiveness.

Gartner expects PC price increases will be unavoidable in the second quarter as well. It said if higher DRAM and NAND component costs are passed on to finished product prices, consumers' purchase decisions may be delayed. An industry official said what matters is whether consumers judge that new products deliver a sufficiently large perceived performance gap to offset the size of the price increase.