💻Microsoft Admits PC Market Hit by RAM Prices as Shipments Drop 20.1%

Your next PC refresh just got more expensive

Windows PC demand is cratering, and Microsoft knows it. PC shipments dropped to 62.7 million units, down 20.1% year-on-year, as rising memory costs flowed fully into end-market prices. Customers are simply delaying refreshes. If you manage fleets or buy hardware, this changes your budget conversations. Microsoft's pitch at the Canalys Forum in Barcelona was to move PC spend out of the refresh budget and into the AI budget, with hybrid workloads split between big cloud LLMs and edge devices. Windows is the platform, Copilot is one piece. Microsoft also pitched Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), letting Windows virtualize agents and manage them through Intune policy. Sysadmins should check whether Windows quality issues justify caution before rolling that out. The numbers are rough. Microsoft's Windows OEM and Devices division revenue fell 22%, and Q2 revenue may drop 30%. Dell isn't expecting a PC demand uplift this year. Over 400 million PCs owned by customers are more than four years old, and none of them have the battery or power for local AI workloads. Watch whether the AI-readiness funded headcount in Microsoft's channel programs actually moves hardware. Spoiler: the installed base is the real problem.