Windows 10's farewell tour – not AI PCs – set to drive laptop sales in 2025
The global laptop market is forecast to grow by 4.9 percent during 2025, but commercial upgrade cycles and the looming Windows 10 end of life are driving this rather than demand for AI-capable PCs.
Taiwan-based market watcher TrendForce says it expects laptop shipment figures to show a moderate recovery for the end of 2024, then pick up next year – and it isn't due to AI PCs as "the impact of AI-integrated notebooks on the overall market remains limited for now."
Looking over the market, the firm says that commercial laptops faced "headwinds" during 2024 because of factors such as economic and political instability, which led to more cautious demand. Despite this, it still expects annual shipments to total 174 million units, marking a 3.9 percent year-on-year increase.
Going forward, it believes that political uncertainty following the US presidential election is now subsiding, and that rate cuts by the Federal Reserve back in September are likely to "stimulate capital flow."
