San Francisco, Dec 1 (IANS): The shipments of desktops, notebooks, tablets and workstations in the US fell by 16 per cent (on-year) to 30.3 million units in the third quarter (Q3) as the education market reached saturation, a new report has said.

Notebook shipments slowed to reach 17.1 million units, a fall of 15 per cent year on year, due to a sharp decline in Chromebooks as the education market reached saturation, reports Canalys.

Tablet shipments declined 24 per cent to 10 million units as consumer demand waned.

Desktops were the best-performing category, with shipments up 6 cent to 3.2 million units amid a return to on-premises work, making them a more viable option for commercial customers than a year ago, the report noted.

"The US PC market slowed after several consecutive quarters of double-digit growth," said Brian Lynch, research analyst at Canalys.

Despite this, overall shipments remained high when compared with pre-pandemic levels.

"Much of the decline can be attributed to the education and consumer segments, which have reached saturation point, leading to a dramatic fall in Chromebook and tablet shipments," he added.

Dell took first place in the US PC market in Q3, growing 10 per cent annually to hit 5.6 million shipments.

At the same time, HP, the market's top Chromebook vendor, suffered a dramatic drop in Q3. Its shipments fell 31 per cent, primarily due to the drop-off in education procurement.

Lenovo grew shipments 3 per cent (on-year) while Apple fell 14 per cent as demand for M1 MacBooks started to level out following a string of extremely strong quarters, the report showed.

US tablet shipments dropped by over 23 per cent in Q3 as the need to support increased screen access, basic computing and connectivity for households fell compared to the height of the pandemic.

Apple held onto first place with a 45 per cent market share as iPads dominate in the US market.