The corporate IT market is currently shifting gears. Following a wave of upgrades driven by the end of Windows 10 support and the migration to Windows 11, businesses are now facing a much less favourable environment: more expensive memory, higher device prices and purchases ‘for the future’ that are becoming increasingly difficult to justify. As a result, refreshing the fleet no longer means replacing it en masse.
In 2025, manufacturers shipped over 270 million computers worldwide, 9.1 per cent more than the previous year. Gartner cited the migration to Windows 11 as one of the main drivers of this growth. At the same time, as early as mid-year, it noted something more significant from a business perspective: the expected boom in new devices was weaker, as some organisations were installing Windows 11 on their existing computers rather than replacing them with new ones.
This is a seemingly minor difference, but it changes the logic of the market. Computers are no longer replaced simply because three or four years have passed since purchase. What matters is their condition, compliance with security requirements and actual workload.
Prices are driving selection
In 2026, the pressure is much greater. Omdia reports that in the second quarter, global PC shipments fell by 3.6 per cent year-on-year to 65.7 million units. At the same time, prices for comparable product lines have risen by around 20–40 per cent over the past year. The costs of memory and data storage, in particular, are on the rise.
This is not solely a problem for manufacturers. In Omdia’s June survey, over half of B2B channel partners stated that their customers were postponing hardware replacements until the market stabilised. A further 6 per cent expected some projects to be cancelled.
Gartner goes a step further. According to its forecast, global PC shipments could fall by 10.4 per cent in 2026. At the same time, the firm anticipates that the combined price increase for DRAM and SSDs could reach 130 per cent by the end of the year compared with baseline levels, pushing up computer prices by an average of around 17 per cent. The expected lifespan of a corporate PC is set to increase by 15 per cent.
The market is therefore shifting from a simple replacement cycle towards managing the economic life of a device. With a fleet of several thousand computers, extending the service life of some of them by even a dozen or so months ceases to be a mere cosmetic adjustment to the IT budget.
Windows 10 does not automatically mean a new computer
The pressure to replace devices was created by the end of support for Windows 10, which took place on 14 October 2025. However, not all devices need to be scrapped as a result. If a computer meets the requirements for Windows 11, migrating to this operating system allows the existing hardware to be reused. Microsoft’s requirements include, amongst other things, TPM 2.0, UEFI with Secure Boot support and a compatible processor.
Where migration is not possible, there is a tangible cost to delaying the upgrade. The Extended Security Updates programme for businesses costs $61 per device in the first year, with the fee doubling in each subsequent year, up to a maximum of three years.
An old computer is therefore not ‘free’ simply because it has already been written off. Security, maintenance, licences, reliability and user time all factor into the equation. On the other hand, replacing a fully functional device solely on the grounds of its age is also becoming increasingly difficult to justify economically.
AI PCs are not yet a compelling argument in their own right
AI adds to the confusion . Manufacturers have rapidly expanded their range of computers equipped with NPUs, but the chip itself, designed for local model processing, does not yet constitute a business application.
IDC estimates that, despite significant marketing investment, AI PCs have not yet delivered the breakthrough capabilities expected by consumers and businesses. Gartner, however, predicts that rising prices will delay the point at which devices of this class reach half the market until 2028.
In practice, this means separating two decisions that have been treated as one for years. A company can modernise its working environment without simultaneously replacing its entire fleet. New hardware is required for workstations limited by performance, security or compatibility. The rest can continue to be used for longer.
The most interesting change in the PC market therefore does not concern processors or the next version of Windows. It concerns how money is spent. In a climate of rising hardware prices, the advantage goes not to those who buy earlier and in greater quantities, but to those who know exactly which computers actually need replacing.
