PCs have had a good year so far in terms of sales, following what was a dismal 2023. A new report shows that the positive outlook will grow even stronger heading into this holiday season for the PC industry.
As reported by Tom’s Hardware, the CTA (Consumer Technology Association) has just released a new analysis that reveals what people in the United States are planning to buy this holiday season — and apparently, it’s a whole lot of PCs and laptops.
A massive 51% of people surveyed said they were planning to buy a laptop as a gift this year, and 35% are planning to buy a desktop or PC. That’s up by close to 10% compared with last year.
Picking from one of the best laptops is also right at the top of the list of desired gifts, so it looks like there will be plenty of happy people this year. If we broaden the survey results, an estimated 233 million people are planning on buying some kind of tech as a gift this year.
The report shows data back to 2007 when the first iPhone was released, and that year just 46% of respondents planned to buy tech-related gifts, compared with 89% this year.
The CTA has speculated that the hype around AI PCs could have contributed to the growth between 2023 and 2024, though plenty of other studies have suggested that consumers don’t really care about AI right now and are just buying the latest PCs as part of the usual upgrade cycle. There’s also the Windows 10 end-of-life warning making an impact, as well as all the excitement around improved battery life coming from recent laptops.
The last big upgrade cycle hit at the start of the pandemic when everyone suddenly had to spend a lot more time at home, and four years later is about the right time for many people to be thinking about an upgrade.
The report got its data from 1,205 adults in the United States from August 27 to September 4, which also shows just how early in the year people start thinking about holiday gifts. Other popular tech gifts for the year include tablets (55%), webcams (26%), printers (35%), and Wi-Fi mesh routers (31%).
As for the most-wanted gifts, the top position goes to laptops, followed by tablets, smartphones, wearables, and gaming consoles. As you might expect, people are generally buying these gifts either for children under 18 or their spouses — so don’t expect to receive a laptop from your colleague or friend.