Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google were the four leading global brands at the end of 2023, according to consulting firm Interbrand. They’re are also four of the world’s five most valuable companies.

The other is Nvidia, which for a time this week, surpassed Microsoft to become the largest company in the world by market cap.

But despite its $3.1 trillion valuation (it reached $3.3 trillion before a two-day slide), Nvidia doesn’t even crack the top 100 most iconic names on Interbrand’s most recent list, which is populated by such companies as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Disney and Netflix.

Nvidia’s historic rise in valuation — the stock has climbed almost ninefold since the end of 2022 — has been driven almost entirely by demand for its graphics processing units (GPUs) that are at the heart of the boom in generative artificial intelligence and, more broadly, by the hype over AI. Nvidia has over 80% of the market for chips used to train and deploy AI software like ChatGPT. A handful of huge tech companies are the primary buyers of its chips.

The speed of Nvidia’s ascent and its relative lack of contact with consumers along the way combines to put the 31-year-old company’s brand recognition on Main Street far behind its allure on Wall Street. No. 100 on Interbrand’s list for 2023 is Japanese camera maker Canon, with Dutch brewer Heineken at No. 99.

“As a product company recently moving onto a global stage, Nvidia has not had time, nor has it dedicated resources, to change its role of brand and strengthen its brand to protect future revenue,” Greg Silverman, Interbrand’s global director of brand economics, said in an email. The risk for Nvidia, Silverman added, is that its “weak brand strength will limit how valuable it will be, despite its market cap heights.”

A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to comment.

Nvidia’s annual revenue growth has exceeded 200% in each of the past three quarters. For fiscal 2025, revenue is expected to almost double from a year earlier to over $120 billion, according to LSEG.

The company’s data center GPUs, which made up 85% of sales in the most recent quarter, are installed in massive facilities, and typically require a team of expensive data science and supercomputing experts to configure them to efficiently create AI software.

By contrast, Apple, ranked No. 1 by Interbrand, makes the vast majority of its money by selling iPhones and other devices to consumers across the globe. Microsoft, ranked second, is an enterprise sales giant, but is ubiquitously known for its Windows and Office software. Third-ranked Amazon strives to be consumers’ everything store, and No. 4 Google is, for many people, the front door to the internet.

Rounding out Interbrand’s top 10 are South Korean electronics giant Samsung, along with three car companies (Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and BMW), Coca-Cola and Nike.

Further down the list, at No. 24, is Nvidia rival Intel, which is best known for making the processor at the heart of laptops and PCs and for its long-running “Intel Inside” advertising campaign. Even Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a company that builds servers, made the list at No. 91.

However, a competing survey shows that Nvidia’s brand value is catching up to that of its peers.

In a ranking of the 100 most valuable global brands published this month by Kantar BrandZ, Nvidia landed at No. 6, leaping 18 places from its prior survey. The brand’s overall valued jumped 178% in a year to an estimate of about $202 billion. Kantar surveys enterprise buyers to evaluate brands that primarily sell to other businesses to come up with a total estimate of brand value.

“Nvidia is pound for pound as relevant and meaningful to that B2B buyer that’s looking to make big, large purchases in-house for their company as Apple is to the consumer who’s buying an iPad or a Mac,” Marc Glovsky, senior brand strategist at Kantar, told CNBC.

And while Nvidia may not be a name known to your parents — or your kids — it does have resonance in a particular corner of the consumer world. Just ask your hard-core gaming buddy.

When Nvidia was founded in 1991, AI was a nascent field. The company’s primary focus was on designing chips that could draw digital triangles quickly, a basic capability that led to a huge expansion in 3D games.

For years, Nvidia, and its GeForce brand and green logo were well known to the type of people who tweaked their computers to run the most advanced games. Nvidia provides the chips for the Nintendo Switch console, which has shipped over 140 million units around the world.

Unlike Intel, Nvidia never put its name in front of consumers with flashy ad campaigns. And gaming is now just a nice side business for chipmaker. In the latest quarter, it accounted for $2.6 billion of revenue, or 10% of total sales, rising 18% year over year.

When it comes to Nvidia’s most important products, companies and institutions vying for its AI chips have to go through an extensive quoting and sales process, often through a computer-equipment company, like Dell or HPE. Those vendors sell complete systems, including memory, a central processor and other parts. Even experts who want to train AI models are more likely to rent Nvidia access through a cloud provider than build their own server clusters.

Still, Nvidia’s name recognition is rapidly increasing. Among retail investors, Nvidia has emerged as the most widely held stock, according to data collected and published last month by Vanda Research.

And while the name didn’t make Interbrand’s top 100 list for 2023, the firm’s data shows its brand awareness quadrupled in the past 12 months, which will help when it’s time for the next ranking, Silverman said.

Maybe by then people will know how to say its name, a topic that’d been the source of debate on obscure gaming forums. The company pronounces it en-VID-ia.

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Microsoft‘s Build developer conference kicks off on Tuesday, giving the company the opportunity to showcase its latest artificial intelligence projects, following high-profile events this month hosted by OpenAI and Google.

One area where Microsoft has a distinct advantage over others in the AI race is in its ownership of Windows, which gives the company a massive PC userbase.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in January that 2024 will mark the year when AI will become the “first-class part of every PC.”

The company already offers its Copilot chatbot assistant in the Bing search engine and, for a fee, in Office productivity software. Now, PC users will get to hear more about how AI will be embedded in Windows and what they can do with it on new AI PCs.

Build comes days after Google I/O, where the search giant unveiled its most powerful AI model yet and showed how its Gemini AI will work on computers and phones. Prior to Google’s event, OpenAI announced its new GPT-4o model. Microsoft is OpenAI’s lead investor, and its Copilot technology is based on OpenAI’s models..

For Microsoft, the challenge is twofold: keeping a prominent position in AI and bolstering PC sales, which have been in the doldrums for the past two years following an upgrade cycle during the pandemic.

In a recent note on Dell to investors, Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring wrote that he remains “bullish on the PC market recovery” due to commentary from customers and recent “upward revisions to notebook” original design manufacturer (ODM) builds.

Technology industry researcher Gartner estimated that PC shipments increased 0.9% in the quarter after a multi-year slump. Demand for PCs was “slightly better than expected,” Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said on the company’s quarterly earnings call last month.

New AI tools from Microsoft could offer another reason for enterprise and consumer customers to upgrade their aging computers, whether they’re made by HP, Dell or Lenovo.

“While Copilot for Windows does not directly drive monetization it should, we believe, drive up usage of Windows, stickiness of Windows, customers to higher priced more powerful PCs (and therefore more revenue to Microsoft per device), and likely search revenue,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note to investors on April 26, the day after Microsoft reported earnings.

While Microsoft will provide the software to handle some of the AI tasks sent to the internet, its computers will be powered by chips from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm for offline AI jobs. That could include, for example, using your voice to ask Copilot to summarize a transcription without a connection.

The key hardware addition to an AI PC is what’s called a neural processing unit. NPUs go beyond the capabilities of traditional central processing units (CPUs) and are designed to specifically handle artificial intelligence tasks. Traditionally, they’ve been used by companies like Apple to improve photos and videos or for speech recognition.

Microsoft hasn’t said what AI PCs will be capable of yet without an internet connection. But Google’s PIxel 8 Pro phone, which doesn’t have a full computer processor, can summarize and transcribe recordings, recommend text message responses and more using its Gemini Nano AI.

Computers with Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chips with a dedicated NPU are expected to arrive in late 2024. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip with an NPU will be available in the middle of this year, while AMD’s latest Ryzen Pro is expected sometime during the quarter.

Intel says the chips allow for things like “real-time language translation, automation inferencing, and enhanced gaming environments.”

Apple has been using NPUs for years and recently highlighted them in its new M4 chip for the iPad Pro. The M4 chip is expected to launch in the next round of Macs sometime this year.

Qualcomm, unlike Intel and AMD, offers chips powered by Arm-based architecture. One of Microsoft’s sessions will talk about “the Next Generation of Windows on Arm,” which will likely cover how Windows runs on Qualcomm chips and how that’s different from Intel and AMD versions of Windows.

Intel still controls 78% of the PC chip market, followed by AMD at 13%, according to recent data from Canalys.

In the past, Qualcomm has promoted Snapdragon Arm-based computers by touting their longer battery life, thinner designs and other benefits like cellular connections. But earlier versions of Qualcomm’s chips were limited in what they offered consumers. In 2018, for example, the company’s Snapdragon 835 chip couldn’t run most Windows applications. 

Microsoft has since improved Windows to handle traditional apps on Arm, but questions remain. The company even has an FAQ page dedicated to computers running on ARM hardware. 

Microsoft will also be hosting sessions like “AI Everywhere” covering how to “accelerate generative AI models” on devices that run in the cloud. 

An “Azure AI Studio” session will look at how developers can create their own Copilot chatbots, which may be similar to what Google and OpenAI are doing with Gemini and ChatGPT. Imagine, for example, a company creating a chatbot that can help employees select health benefits.

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Dell shares surged 21.3% on Friday, their best day since the company returned to the public market in 2018. The rally followed a better-than-expected earnings report, driven by a big revenue beat.

The maker of IT hardware and infrastructure technology said sales slid 13% from a year earlier to $22.9 billion, topping the $20.9 billion average analyst estimate according to Refinitiv. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.74 exceeded the $1.14 average analyst estimate.

Dell traded at $68.59 as of mid-day Friday. It’s on pace for its biggest gain and highest close since the company relisted its stock five years ago. Dell was taken private in 2013 by founder Michael Dell and a group of private equity firms.

In addition to its rosy earnings report for the latest quarter, Dell increased its forecast for the year. The company now expects full-year sales of between $89.5 billion and $91.5 billion, representing a 12% year-over-year drop at the middle of the range. Dell previously was calling for a drop of about 15%.

Despite a decline in revenue, Morgan Stanley on Friday named Dell its top IT hardware pick, replacing Apple. The firm wrote in a report that Dell “is emerging as an early Generative AI winner,” referring to the latest developments in artificial intelligence.

Morgan Stanley sees Dell benefiting from booming demand for AI servers as more companies focus their spending on that corner of the hardware market. The analysts recommend buying the stock and lifted the price target to $70.

“DELL is the first company in our coverage to directly benefit from the Gen AI spending cycle,” the analysts wrote, pointing to the Dell’s disclosure of a $2 billion backlog of AI servers.

Morgan Stanley maintained an overweight rating for Apple, but noted risks of increased regulation around the app store.

Prior to Friday, Dell’s biggest one-day gain since 2018 was a 14% increase in March 2020, according to FactSet. Its previous record close was $60.77 in February of this year.

Correction: A headline for this story has been updated to reflect that Dell returned to the public market in 2018. A previous headline misstated the year.

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Apple’s worldwide PC shipments fell 40.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023 amid a broader contraction in consumer demand, according to research firm IDC.

All five major computer manufacturers— An apple, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo — posted a double-digit drop in shipments in the first quarter, reflecting weaker demand and persistent inventory issues. But Apple’s decline was the biggest of the bunch.

Apple’s worldwide PC market share fell between the first quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 from 8.6% to 7.2%, according to IDC data. The company shipped 2.8 million fewer devices year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, according to IDC.

It’s not entirely unexpected. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said in February that Apple expects a double-digit year-over-year decline in Mac and iPad sales for the March quarter. Mac revenue fell 28.66% year over year in the December quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the time that the challenging macroeconomic environment had affected iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch sales.

Apple shares closed down more than 1.5% on Monday.

“The preliminary results also represent the coda to an era of COVID-induced demand and at least a temporary return to pre-COVID patterns,” IDC said.

“Even with heavy discounting, channel and PC makers can expect increased inventories to continue through mid-year and potentially into the third quarter,” IDC researcher Jitesh Ubrani said in the report.

PC makers will suffer in the near term, the IDC report said, with growth expected to recover by the end of the year.

IDC said there are potential benefits for PC makers. Weakened demand gives companies a chance to finish “resetting their plans” and iron out supply chain bottlenecks. This breathing space will be quite useful for companies like Apple, which has begun to push suppliers and assemblers to move their operations out of China.

An Apple spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Apple will report its March quarter earnings on May 4.

Correction: Apple’s worldwide PC market share fell from 8.6% to 7.2% between the first quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, according to IDC data. A previous version incorrectly specified the percentage change.

Apple’s new laptops, announced Monday that include the iPhone maker’s own next-generation chips, could pose new challenges for Microsoft’s lucrative Windows business.

Since Apple began selling Macs powered by its local M1 processors in late 2020, the company’s computer business has been gaining momentum. Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the M2, which will debut in the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The new chip will include 25% more transistors and 50% more bandwidth than the M1.

Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at technology research firm Gartner, said Apple could continue to gain market share with the M2 architecture. In 2021, Apple held 7.9% of global computer shipments by operating system, while Windows controlled 81.8%, according to Gartner. The company expects Apple’s share to rise to 10.7% in 2026, while Windows’s share will drop to 80.5%.

Kitagawa said an updated forecast, which is likely to make Apple’s performance look stronger, is coming in the next few weeks.

Apple’s Mac business has been revived by new devices with the company’s own chips as a replacement for Intel’s processors. The first was the MacBook Air, launched last year, followed by updated models of the iMac, Mac Mini and MacBook Pro laptops and a new model for advanced users called Mac Studio.

Apple’s newer devices have longer battery life than their older Intel-based counterparts and a lot of processing power.

Sales increased. Apple’s Mac business grew 23% in fiscal 2021 to more than $ 35 billion in sales. Mac sales rose more than 14 percent in the March quarter, faster than any other category of Apple hardware. Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts in April that “the incredible response from our M1 customers to the M1 helped increase revenue by 15% over the previous year despite supply constraints.”

This is not great news for Microsoft.

Most of Microsoft’s revenue from Windows comes from licenses it sells to Dell, HP, Lenovo and other device manufacturers. That amounts to 7.5 percent of Microsoft’s total revenue and nearly 11 percent of gross profit, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Keith Weiss wrote in a note this week.

As Microsoft loses market share, “a lot of price control is lost in the market,” said Brad Brooks, CEO of cybersecurity startup Censys and former corporate vice president of Microsoft’s consumer business.

Most Windows license licenses for device manufacturers come from commercial customers. Brooks said Apple is making progress among consumers, and he learned during his nine years at Microsoft that there is a positive link between consumer usage and what happens in the workplace.

“Once they start using a different set of products in their home environment, they are more likely to adopt that environment in their professional settings,” Brooks said, referring to corporate leaders who make technology purchasing decisions.

Brooks said he switched to the Mac as the main computer in 2017 and said he would like the M2 in the future. All of his company’s 150 employees use Macs as mainframes, he said.

Businesses are slowly embracing Apple M1 computers for fears that key applications will not be compatible. But Adobe, Microsoft and other developers have gradually come up with natural versions of their device software, said Kitagawa, who now expects corporate adoption to grow.

Patrick Moorhead, chief executive of industrial research firm Moor Insights and Strategy, said Windows computers could eventually have battery life and performance to match Apple’s latest Mac. Among the chipmakers they use, “it’s currently closer between Apple and AMD than between Apple and Intel,” Moorhead said.

However, Apple has other levers to pull, as it can offer cheaper computers. Moorhead predicts a MacBook SE that could cost $ 800 or $ 900, compared to the starting price of $ 1199 for Apple’s upcoming M2 MacBook Air. It would be similar to what Apple did with the iPhone SE, a budget iPhone that lacks some of the company’s latest smartphone enhancements.

“MacBook SE at a much lower cost would ruin Windows in a pretty big way,” Moorhead said.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.

– Kif Leswing of CNBC contributed to this report.

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Check out which companies are making the headlines at midday Friday.

Ulta Beauty — Cosmetics retail sales rose 12.5% ​​after better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue. Ulta Beauty also shared a better-than-expected look for the entire year.

American Eagle – The stock fell 6.6% after the retailer reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue. American Eagle reported $1.055 billion in revenue versus Refinitiv’s estimate of $1.142 billion.

Autodesk – Shares rose 10.3% after the software company reported earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ expectations. Autodesk reported total net revenue of $1.170 billion which is better than the Refinitiv consensus estimate of $1.145 billion. The company’s earnings came in at $1.43 per share, beating expectations by nearly 9 cents per share.

Big Lots – The shares fell 12.1% after the discount company reported a profit loss. Big Lots cited inflationary pressures while issuing weaker full-year guidance. The company’s comparable store sales also fell more than expected.

Pinduoduo – Shares rose 15.2% after the Chinese e-commerce company reported better-than-expected quarterly results. Pinduoduo also reported 7% in active buyers compared to the same period last year.

Dell – Shares of the information technology company jumped 12.9% after better-than-expected earnings and returns for the previous quarter. The computer maker said it has benefited from a jump in demand for desktop and laptop computers from business customers.

Red Robin — Shares of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers rose 25.1% after the restaurant chain beat revenue estimates and shared a less-than-expected loss in the last quarter. Similar store sales rose 19.7% year over year, topping StreetAccount’s forecast of 17%.

Marvell Technology – Shares jumped 6.7% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings. Marvell Technology reported earnings of 52 cents per share on revenue of $1.447 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected earnings of 51 cents per share on revenue of $1.427 billion.

Business Day – Stocks fell 5.6% after the human capital management company reported earnings that came in below expectations. Business Day reported earnings of 83 cents a share, which was lower than Refinitiv’s estimate of 86 cents a share.

CNBC’s Tanaya Machel, Hana Miu, and Samantha Soobin contributed reporting.

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

Big Lots (BIG) — Shares of the discount retailer plunged 21.2% in premarket after missing Wall Street expectations for quarterly earnings and revenue. The company also reported a larger-than-expected drop in comparable store sales and issued cautious guidance for the full year, saying inflationary pressures reduce discretionary spending.

Hibbett (HIBB)–The sporting goods retailer stock fell 6.5% in premarket trading after falling short of analysts’ earnings and sales estimates for the fourth quarter. Hibbett said its clients had lower discretionary income than in the previous quarter when stimulus payments helped boost spending.

Pinduoduo (PDD) – The China-based e-commerce platform operator’s quarterly results were better than expected, as China’s Covid-19 lockdown helped boost online spending. Pinduoduo is up 8.8% in the pre-market movement.

Canopy Growth (CGC) – The cannabis producer reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, with revenue lower than analysts’ expectations. The company said it expects to be profitable on an adjusted basis in fiscal year 2024. Umbrella growth eased 10.5% in pre-market trading.

Costco (COST) — Costco beat the higher and lower estimates for the last quarter, but the retailer’s profit margins shrunk by about one percentage point due to increased labor and shipping costs. Costco said it was increasing the prices of some foodstuffs to make up for the increases. Its stock lost 1.3% in the pre-market.

Dell Technologies (DELL) — Dell jumped 9.8% in premarket trading, after better-than-expected earnings and returns for the fourth quarter. The PC maker has benefited from a jump in corporate demand for desktop and laptop computers.

Gap (GPS) — Gap shares fell 17.8% in pre-market activity after the apparel retailer cut its full-year profit forecast and posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss. Gap’s results were affected by higher shipping costs and deeper levels of discounting.

ULTA BEAUTY (ULTA) — Ulta shares jumped 8.4% in premarket trading after the cosmetics retailer beat Street expectations with its latest quarterly report and issued an optimistic outlook. Strong demand for beauty products helped Ulta.

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) — American Eagle fell 13.4% in premarket trading after its quarterly earnings and revenue fell short of Wall Street estimates. The chief executive of the apparel retailer, Jay Schuttenstein, said the quarter was challenging, with demand well below the company’s expectations.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (RRGB) — Shares of the restaurant chain rose 12.9% in pre-market activity after reporting a less-than-expected quarterly loss and revenue that beat analysts’ expectations. Red Robin also updated its full-year cost-of-commodity guidance, due to the effects of inflation.

Technology companies have not seen a sell-off like in 2001 and the bursting of the dotcom bubble.

The Nasdaq fell 3.8 percent this week, falling for the seventh straight week. This is the longest series of losses for the technology index in 21 years.

Inflation, rising interest rates, the war in Ukraine and the blocking of the pandemic in China are contributing to a catastrophic market in general and a particularly brutal stretch for investors in technology and growth stocks following historic rises in recent years.

The Federal Reserve has signaled that it will continue to raise interest rates to fight inflation, leading to fears that higher capital costs will be combined with deteriorating consumer confidence to eat up profit margins.

Nasdaq lost more than 29% of its peak on November 19, closing on Friday at 11,354.62. The S&P 500 did not perform so badly, but still touched the territory of the bear market on Friday, which means a decline of 20% from its highest level.

Cisco was among the biggest losers in technology for the week, falling 13 percent after the computer networking giant predicted an unexpected drop in revenue this quarter. Once seen as a leader in the economy, given its proliferation, Cisco said its guidelines reflect the company’s decision to suspend operations in Russia and Belarus, combined with supply shortages due to the blocking of Covid-19 in China and uncertainty. when things will get better.

“Given this uncertainty, we are practical about the current environment and err on the side of caution about our prospects, accepting it a quarter at a time,” the company said in a statement announcing its profits.

Dell, which reported results on Thursday, fell more than 11% for the week. Shopify, which sells software to e-retailers, fell nearly 10 percent. Cloud software company Workday fell about 9 percent after analysts downgraded stocks amid fears of a recession. Security software vendor Okta fell 14 percent.

The actions related to the billionaire Elon Musk also hit. Twitter, which is currently being bought by Tesla’s CEO for $ 54.20 a share, fell 6% this week to $ 38.29. Tesla fell 14%.

Within Big Tech, Apple fell 6.5 percent, suffering eight consecutive declines a week. Alphabet sank 6%, while Amazon fell about 5%.

Nasdaq is already down 20% for the quarter and is on track with its worst quarterly performance since the fourth period of 2008.

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Shares of IBM closed 7.1% on Wednesday after hardware, software and consulting vendors reported stronger-than-expected results for the first quarter, prompting analysts to raise price targets and ratings. Profits marked IBM’s best day since early April 2020.

The 110-year-old technology company has become more favorable to investors this year as central banks sought to fight inflation at higher interest rates. Although not growing as fast as many of its enterprise software competitors, it generates revenue and continues to pay dividends, which can serve as a hedge against market uncertainty.

Executives said on Tuesday that adding talent would cost more in the coming months, but the company plans to charge higher prices for consulting engagements. It will also launch a new mainframe computer that can help growth. Analysts polled by Refinitiv now see IBM growing by 6% in 2022, compared to less than 4% last year.

“We are gradually becoming more constructive after two consecutive Qs of superiority,” Morgan Stanley analyst Eric Woodring, who has the equivalent of an IBM share purchase rating, wrote in a note to customers. The company’s 12-month price target moved to $ 157 from $ 150, and IBM’s revenue is expected to grow 5% in constant currency in 2022, up from about 4% earlier.

Instability and uncertainty are driving market conditions now and now, with more than half of IBM’s revenue recurring rather than one-time transactions, it may perform better in the current environment than other hardware companies Morgan Stanley is tracking. , writes Woodring. This includes Apple, Dell Technologies, HP Inc. and Xerox.

Bank of America analysts led by Wamsi Mohan, with a rating to buy IBM shares, raised expectations for earnings and profits for 2022, 2023 and 2024. “In 2023, we see the portfolio as defensive (excelling in a difficult macro environment) and expect steady revenue growth after 2022,” they wrote.

Credit Suisse analysts Sami Badri and George Engroff, who also rate IBM shares as a purchase, raised their forecasts for this year and next and raised their target price for IBM shares by $ 1 to $ 166.

Not everyone felt better about IBM after the report. Tony Sakonagi Jr. of Bernstein Research, with the equivalent of IBM’s stock retention rating, mentioned in a note that while IBM raised its expectations for the “modest” year-round, margins were narrower than expected and any rise could be temporarily, because 2023 will be more difficult for the company.

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Computer shipments fell sharply in the first quarter of 2022, according to new industry estimates, suggesting that the pandemic boom in computer sales is over.

Gartner said on Monday that it estimates that PC shipments fell 7.3 percent year-over-year to 77.5 million units, largely due to a sharp drop in Chromebook shipments. Chromebooks are cheap laptops that are popular in schools that run the Google operating system.

The declining shipment in the first quarter is a significant difference from the rapid growth in sales that the industry reported in 2021.

Computer sales grew the fastest in 20 years in the first quarter of 2021 as consumers and businesses purchased new laptops and desktops for remote work and study. In 2021, computer sales grew by about 15%, returning to 2012 levels after almost a decade of slow or no growth.

Other reports released on Monday also show a decline. IDC estimates a decline of 5.1% to about 80.5 million units delivered. Canalys saw a 3% drop in shipments in the first three months of 2022, although it estimates that total computer revenue has still grown. Gartner said the computer market is growing at 3.3 percent a year, with the exception of the Chromebook.

The industry has faced challenges related to the supply of parts needed for laptops and desktops, resulting from the global shortage of chips during the boom in computer sales. Computer vendors also stopped shipping new computers to Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.

Companies producing computers or key parts such as processors had hoped the pandemic would create a new, higher sales base for the industry, but some analysts warned that there were signs that growth could slow dramatically as so many people already have purchased new computers.

Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, Asus and Acer were the company’s six largest computers in terms of units shipped in the first quarter, according to Gartner.