The worldwide PC market had its fifth consecutive year-on-year decline in Q3, as shipments fell 14% to 105.6 million, reported Canalys Wednesday. The category had a 1% sequential increase from Q2, which had a major supply disruption due to COVID-19 lockdowns in China. Demand in all categories and user segments was “stifled by worsening macroeconomic conditions” and a “cautious approach” to spending by consumers and enterprise customers, said the research firm. Apple was the only PC maker to record a year-on-year shipment increase in Q3, growing 1.5% to 23.4 million, for 22.2% market share, Canalys said. Lenovo shipments dropped 20.6% to 19.4 million for 18.4% share. HP units tumbled 27.9% to 12.7 million, Dell shipments were off 21.1% to 12 million, and Samsung PCs slipped 12.9% to 7.3 million shipments, it said. Chromebook shipments plunged 29% to 4.2 million, with Acer the only company to grow shipments in Q3, at 11.3% to 1.1 million units. HP Chromebook shipments fell 26.8% to 802,000, Lenovo’s plummeted 49.7% to 768,000, and Dell’s decreased 10.9% to 752,000. Education demand saturation “continued to take its toll,” said analyst Brian Lynch, saying vendors have “struggled to find growth opportunities in other segments while managing high inventory levels.” Tablets dropped 6% to 35.3 million units, said the report. Amazon’s heavy discounting on Fire tablets during Prime Day fueled a 17.9% shipment increase to 3.2 million, for 9.1% market share. Tablet leader Apple had a 5.6% drop in iPad shipments to 14.4 million, for 40.7% share, and Samsung tablet shipments fell 8.3% to 6.6 million, 18.7% share, it said.

Notebook PCs continued to struggle in Q3, with global shipments declining 15% year on year to 56.1 million, blogged Strategy Analytics analyst Eric Smith Wednesday, citing inflation, recession and slow growth. Apple was the only laptop maker with a gain, with MacBook shipments growing 26% to 8.1 million for 14% market share. Market leader Lenovo had a 16% falloff to 12.8 million shipments and 23% share, HP shipments dropped 32% to 9.5 million, and Dell units tumbled 25% to 9.1 million, said the research firm. The commercial segment performed better than consumer for most vendors, with consumer volume “challenging” for all vendors except Apple. Chromebook demand, meanwhile, “is a shadow of what it was a year ago,” said Smith. For the first nine months of 2022, Chromebook shipments dropped 51% to about 16 million units. Looming global economic challenges will likely affect manufacturing and logistics costs, said Smith.

Acer launched its first gaming Chromebook Tuesday, with an RGB gaming keyboard, 120-Hz in-plane switching display and access to over 1,000 games. The 516G ($649) has a 12th-generation Intel processor and supports the highest performance tier of Nvidia’s GeForce Now game-streaming service, which is included in a three-month free trial, along with Amazon Luna. DTS audio plays through two upfiring and two downfiring speakers, the company said. Battery life is given as nine hours.

Framework Computer is taking preorders for a Chromebook it developed with Google, the company blogged Wednesday, calling the $999 Chromebook “high-performance, upgradeable, repairable” and customizable. A refundable $100 deposit is required at the time of preorder, with first shipments scheduled for early December. Replacement parts and modules for Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition are also available for a waitlist on the company’s marketplace, it said. The device has an Intel Core i5-1240P processor and an expansion card system that lets buyers choose the ports they want and which side they’re placed on. Memory starts at 8 GB with 256 GB storage, upgradeable to 64 GB memory and 1 TB storage, the company said. Every part of the system has a scannable QR code, giving users access to documentation, repair guides, replacement and upgrade parts, and insight into design and manufacturing data, the company said. System software is open. The Chromebook is built with the Titan C security chip, designed to receive automatic updates through June 2030, the company said.

LG pushed long battery life and privacy in the launch of its 2022 Ultra PC lineup Monday. The 4.4-pound 17U70Q ($1,599), a Best Buy exclusive with a 16:10 aspect screen, is powered by a 12th-generation Intel Core processor and includes an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card, Gen4 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) and DDR5 RAM. The 3.6-pound, 16-inch 16U70Q ($999-$1,299) is powered by an AMD Ryzen processor and has an NVMe SSD plus LPDDR4 RAM. Battery life is given as 80 watt-hours for the 17-inch model, 72 watt-hours for the 16-incher. LG’s in-plane switching displays are anti-glare to make it easier to view what’s on screen regardless of ambient light conditions, the company said. The LG Glance by Mirametrix AI-based software automatically locks the screen when the user steps away from the laptop; it also alerts users and blurs the screen if someone is looking over their shoulder, the company said. AI noise-canceling is designed to improve the sound environment for video conferencing.

Global notebook PC shipments fell 15% year-on-year in Q2 as demand shifted to more normal levels following a COVID-19-inspired surge, Strategy Analytics reported Tuesday. Despite new challenges, sales and average selling prices are better for PC vendors than pre-COVID times, and SA expects the trend to continue as customers steer toward more premium products. In Q2, consumer spending moved to holiday, new clothes and home improvements, with some pullback due to inflation, said analyst Chirag Upadhyay. Commercial notebook PC business “still looks solid” on spending for hybrid work solutions, though some large enterprises are leaning toward desktop PCs as people return to offices, he said. So far in Q3, consumer notebook spending has improved a bit in education as shoppers want the latest laptops and back-to-school discounts, Upadhyay said. Chromebook shipments plunged 53% year on year on lower educational demand, but shipments were 11% higher sequentially, said analyst Eric Smith. Education spending is “on hold” vs. other priorities in many countries, but Smith said the market will grow “as governments re-start spending on digitization.” Market leader Lenovo had a 17% year-on-year drop in notebook shipments in Q2 to 12.8 million, for 23% share. HP’s notebook shipments plunged 29% to 10.5 million; it tied for 19% share with Dell, whose shipments slipped by a point to 10.3 million. Apple shipments declined 13% to 4.18 million for 9% share, followed by Acer, with a 16% falloff to 4.3 million units, SA said.

Lattice Semiconductor, Google and Lenovo collaborated to equip the IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook with machine learning experiences, they said Thursday. The effort combines hardware and software expertise from the three companies to enable user presence detection and privacy features in the 2-in-1 laptop that's powered by low-power field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in Lattice’s Nexus platform. Lattice’s FPGAs and software make it easier for OEMs to add AI, computer vision and security features to their designs without sacrificing power efficiency, said Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Esam Elashmawi.

LG announced pricing and availability Monday for its 2022 LG gram laptop lineup, ranging 14-17-inches ($1,199-$2,299). The line also includes LG's first portable monitor, the 16-inch 16MQ70 ($349). The laptops' LG Glance by Mirametrix software feature automatically locks the screen if the user steps away from her laptop, alerting her and blurring the content if someone is looking at the screen from behind, LG said.

Asus introduced a 1.94-pound, 14-inch laptop computer at Computex in Taiwan, Tuesday. Battery life is given as 16 hours for the PC, which has a lightweight magnesium-alloy chassis built to military-grade endurance standards, the company said. The ExpertBook B9 ($1,399) and the 14-inch 2-in-one B7 Flip ($1,399), a 5G convertible PC, are due in Q3, the company said.

Asus launched two Wi-Fi 6 Zenbooks in its 14 series Wednesday, including a 14-inch convertible laptop with a 16:10 aspect ratio that supports a stylus and has a 360-degree hinge that allows it to be used in laptop, tent, stand or tablet mode. The Zenbook 14 Flip OLED ($1,099 at Newegg) also has an AMD Ryzen 5000 mobile processor and AMD Radeon graphics, USB-C port, 512GB storage and a 63-watt-hour battery. The 1TB Zenbook 14X OLED ($1,399 at Amazon and Newegg) has an Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia graphics, USB Type-A and two USB-C ports, HDMI, microSD card slot and an audio jack.