San Francisco, Oct 11 (IANS): The traditional PC industry continued to decline, with worldwide shipments reaching 74.3 million units in the third quarter of 2022, says a new report.

According to IDC, cooling demand and uneven supply have contributed to a year-over-year contraction of 15.0 per cent.

However, shipment volumes remain well above pre-pandemic levels when PC volumes were driven mainly by commercial refreshes due to the looming end of support for Windows 7.

"Consumer demand has remained muted though promotional activity from the likes of Apple and other players has helped soften the fall and reduce channel inventory by a couple of weeks across the board," Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, said in a statement.

"Supply has also reacted to the new lows by reducing orders, with Apple being the only exception as their third quarter supply increased to make up for lost orders stemming from the lockdowns in China during the second quarter," Ubrani added.

Ahead of Apple, in the top position, Lenovo saw its shipments shrink YoY 16.1 per cent to 16.9 million, HP declined 27.8 per cent to 12.7 million, and Dell dropped 21.2 per cent to 11.96 million.