That's still a 9.4 per cent dip from the 69 million units shipped globally in the fourth quarter of 2023.

iGPU shipments clocked in at 56 million units last quarter. That's a 30 per cent hike year-over-year, but still not quite up to the 62 million units from the fourth quarter of 2023. JPR’s crystal balls say iGPU penetration in the PC sector will skyrocket to 98 per cent.

Laptops are the bee's knees these days, with demand for notebooks leaving desktop sales in the dust. In the first quarter of 2024, desktop processors made up just 27 per cent of the market, down from 32 per cent in the first quarter of 2023, while mobile CPUs have upped their game from 68 per cent to 73 per cent.

But it's not all sunshine and rainbows, especially not for Intel and AMD. Server CPU shipments have taken a tumble, down 13 per cent from last quarter and 17 per cent from the same time last year. It looks like server farms and data centres aren't keeping pace with the PC hardware industry's hopes and dreams.

Jon Peddie reckons the latest figures have thrown a spanner in the works for many analysts and investors who were betting on the growth to keep on trucking for a bit longer. Peddie's bracing for the second quarter numbers to be a bit soft, but he's got a twinkle in his eye, thinking this might just mean the market's settling down and getting back to its old rhythmic ways.

The industry is crossing its fingers and toes, hoping for a bounce back sooner rather than later.