Has select Alienware gaming machines been dropped at JB Hi Fi? As the market gets tough for PC manufacturers.
Strange things are happening in the PC market as PC Companies struggle to hold onto share with one Dell insider claiming that the level of Alienware notebooks ranged at JB Hi Fi is set to fall.
ChannelNews has been told that Harvey Norman “Is seriously overstocked with PC’s and monitors” and despite major promoties stock levels are still high.
This year has become a difficult one for PC Companies after a three-year growth streak for gaming PCs and gaming monitors came to an end in 2022.
According to IDC PC shipments of gaming PCs declined 6.4% while gaming monitors declined 7.1% compared to 2021 levels.
A total of 44.9 million gaming PCs and 17.3 million gaming monitors were shipped during the past year, which was well above pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Looking ahead, IDC expects 2024 to be a year of recovery as 2023 will be marred with macroeconomic challenges, inventory issues, and lack of meaningful upgrades.
During the weekend Dell’s Co-Chief Operating Officer Chuck Whitten announced he is resigning next month as the hardware giant grapples with a historic slowdown in computer demand.
“After discussions with Chuck and the board of directors about the leadership profile the company needs in its next chapter, we have jointly decided that Chuck will depart Dell Technologies,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell wrote in an email to employees.
Whitten’s departure may signal Dell’s effort to tighten its leadership and go-to-market strategy as it works to promote its multi-cloud products, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Woo Jin Ho said.
“The company has never been better positioned for the current moment in technology,” Whitten said in the LinkedIn post announcing his departure.
Dell is wrestling with a sharp drop-off the past two years in demand for personal computers, the sale of which makes up more than half of the company’s revenue. In February, Dell announced it would cut about 6,650 jobs.
This week HP is hosting Australian retailers and media in Hong Kong in an effort to boost their profile and sales.
According to Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device “Excess inventory carried over from 2022 is leading to discounting of older generation systems while also hampering re-orders of the latest generation of gaming PCs,” “The vast supply of add-in boards in the secondary GPU market further compounds the issue as it helps prolong the life of existing gaming desktops and suppresses demand for new systems.”
“The excessive power requirements of the latest GPUs is hampering growth of both new gaming desktops and notebooks as it tips the scales of performance per dollar in favour of last year’s models while the rise of mobile/handheld gaming is also affecting gamers’ share of wallet,” continued Ubrani.
“Gaming monitors contracted last year, the first-ever decline in shipments since IDC began tracking this market in 2016,” said Jay Chou, research manager for IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Monitor Tracker.
“There was a phenomenal buildup of stock so inventories will need at least a couple more quarters to return to normal. Beyond the short term, we remain optimistic. A gaming monitor offers a relatively inexpensive way to improve the gaming experience and with new developments forthcoming, we still expect a recovery in the latter part of 2023.”
Despite the short-term negativity, the markets for gaming PCs and monitors are generally expected to outperform the overall PC and monitor markets as total volume for gaming products grows from 58.8 million in 2023 to 75.1 million in 2027.
