One in four laptops shipped in 2024 was GenAI capable, says report

Generative AI (GenAI) is growing as we speak. Now, the tech isn't just limited to throwing random questions at a chatbot in your web browser. Companies have started marketing smartphones and laptops as GenAI-capable, Copilot+, or AI PCs.

According to the latest numbers published by Counterpoint Research, over 25%, or one in every four laptops shipped in 2024, was GenAI capable. Over 253 million PCs across various brands were shipped in 2024, recording an increase of 2.6% from 2023.

The PC market recorded a 3.7% shipment growth in Q4 2024 year-over-year, led by the holiday season and subsidy policy from the Chinese government. "We believe the PC market has recovered to normal seasonality and entered a new phase after the launch of AI PCs in 2024," the firm said in its report.

However, other significant factors have contributed to the rise. Windows 10's upcoming end-of-life kept a steady flow of PC orders from enterprises looking for system upgrades before October 2025.

Canalys reported in November last year that AI-enabled PC made up 20% of the shipments in Q3 2024. Gartner also predicted that AI PCs will dominate the business market by 2026.

Speaking by the numbers, Lenovo came first in the global PC shipment race with a 4.6% growth year-over-year and shipped 61.8 million units. It was followed by an almost flat growth from HP (0.2%) and a U-turn by Dell with a negative growth of -1.3%.

Apple, which launched its Apple Intelligence suite of AI features, had a rough spell in the first half of 2024. It was saved by modest growth after the new MacBook Pro arrived at the end of the year. Processor brands such as AMD's Strix Point, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite series, and Intel's Lunar Lake have powered AI PC solutions in 2024.

The Copilot+ PC branding introduced at Microsoft Build in May 2024 is a class of Windows 11 devices packing a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to handle AI-extensive workloads such as real-time translations and image generation. Moreover, the AI PCs powered by NVIDIA's RTX 3000/4000 series GPUs can also handle GenAI applications efficiently, contributing to shipment growth in 2024.

"AI laptops continued to gather steam in 2024 with AMD, Qualcomm and Intel driving Copilot+ laptop PCs and NVIDIA driving GenAI-capable high-performance laptop PCs," Counterpoint said.

The firm expects AI PCs to capture about 60% of the laptop market in 2025. On-device processing offered by premium GenAI PCs is expected to trickle down to the mid-tier PC segment in terms of hardware and software, fueling shipment growth.

Source and image: Counterpoint

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