Dell Technologies and HP see that the long-awaited recovery of the PC market is not yet paying off. The recovery of this market segment seems to be stalling.
Expectations that the global PC market would slowly pick up seem premature. Figures from the PC divisions of Dell Technologies and HP for this year’s third and fourth fiscal quarters, respectively, show that this is not yet the case.
Although earlier quarters of 2024 indicated that the PC market, after the huge dip following the pandemic, was working on a comeback, this segment seems to be stagnating in the third quarter. Dell, for example, stated that the PC replacement cycle will not happen until 2025.
HP commented that the latest 24H2 version of Windows 11 has not yet delivered the same sales increase among enterprise customers as previous versions. Market researchers, such as IDC, have indicated that the PC market is again in a slump.
Dell Technologies’ PC division posted a 1 percent drop in revenue in the last fiscal third quarter to a total of $12.1 billion, less than analysts had expected. HP’s PC business did record a plus of 2 percent, $9 59 billion in revenue, in figures for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2024, but again this was less than experts expected.
Infrastructure is doing well
More positive news came from the infrastructure front, mainly from sales of AI servers. Revenue from Dell’s infrastructure division, which includes AI servers, rose 34 percent to $11.4 billion. This slightly exceeded analysts’ expectations, thanks partly to shipments of AI servers equipped with Nvidia’s new Blackwell GPUs.
In the third quarter of 2024, Dell sold $2.9 billion worth of AI servers, down slightly from $3.1 billion in the second fiscal quarter.
At HP, the print division posted revenue growth of 1 percent compared with the same period in 2023, totaling $4.5 billion.
Revenue fourth quarter 2024
Dell Technologies’ total revenue increased 10 percent to $24.4 billion in the latest quarter, just below the expected $24.6 billion.
HP’s fiscal fourth quarter revenue was $14.1 billion, 2 percent higher than in the third quarter of this year. For the entire fiscal year 2024, HP’s revenue was $56.6 billion, down 0.2 percent from 2023.
For the fourth and final fiscal quarter, which ends in February 2025, Dell Technologies expects revenue of $24.5 billion, slightly more than analysts forecast. HP, on the other hand, anticipates slightly lower-than-expected revenue for the first fiscal quarter of 2025 based on its current share price.
The stock market reacted with disappointment to Dell Technologies’ and HP’s quarterly results. Both stock prices closed in the negative on Tuesday.