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Gartner previously projected AI PCs would reach 50% market penetration before the end of the decade, but rising memory prices on premium-tier hardware will also push that milestone back to 2028. AI PCs, of course, require more onboard memory to run local inference workloads, making them especially exposed to DRAM cost increases.
Longer upgrade cycles will follow directly from higher prices, and Gartner says that PC lifetimes will extend by 15% for business buyers and 20% for consumers by the end of 2026, a trend it noted will raise concerns about security vulnerabilities on aging hardware.
For the PC market, demand will increasingly concentrate at the top end, where vendors carry enough margin to absorb component inflation without destroying profitability. Gartner advised vendors to accept unit volume decline rather than cut prices to chase budget buyers. "Overall, device vendors and channels face a critical window in the first half of 2026 to optimize pricing and protect margins before component inflation compresses profitability from the second quarter onwards," Atwal said.
The forecast covers smartphones as well, where shipments are projected to fall 8.4% this year. Gartner estimated basic smartphone buyers will exit the market five times faster than premium buyers in 2026 as rising costs push consumers toward refurbished or second-hand alternatives.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday March 04, @01:10PM
It's fake news, endlessly reguritated and re-eaten and repeated until this article.
Moving up the human centipede food chain we see the original source:
https://www.alixpartners.com/insights/102jsm5/the-emergence-and-user-demand-for-ai-pcs/ [alixpartners.com]
I see the "users" were surveyed if they'd like better battery management and even more shit in their notification tray "monitoring" their systems. Then redefine those requests to mean installing MCP agents on every PC to monitor and control the PC remotely, by a possibly friendly or possible hostile set of corporations and governments. Then throw in the undocumented claim that they're "willing to pay a premium" (how much? $1? $10000?). Ignore the list of actual user concerns that would be anti AI like malware vector, slow performance, and data privacy which are 3 anti-AI arguments out of the top 5 overall user concerns.
Finally throw in a list of "stuff users like to do" which they currently do with websites and chat apps and declare they totally need new hardware to keep doing the same thing with AI.
This is typical propaganda masquerading as "research". Its an old scheme. Do you drink water to remain hydrated, like have you had a glass of water in the last month? Oh 99% of you have indeed drank a glass of water? Well thats just duckie I will now convert that survey data into... President Trump has been seen drinking a glass of water historically... Now start the centrally coordinated press release storm: Front Page News: "Recent polling data indicates 99% of Americans agree with President Trump on Environmental and Dietary Choices" Because 'drink water', LOL.
This is VERY dire news for the AI bubble if the only "good" news they can ship is utterly ridiculous propaganda. They're toast, the Titanic has struck the iceberg and is going down...