Computing is making a comeback in the first quarter of 2026, with consumers focusing heavily on buying high-performance hardware.

A Market Polarised by Power

James Bates, Senior Retail Analyst at CONTEXT, points out that the market is currently splitting based on computing power. Smartphones and tablets of the past ten years are now giving way to major computing setups. In Germany and Spain, the sales of high-end desktops and laptops are skyrocketing, particularly those built to handle heavy AI tasks.

The Revenue Rebound

One of the biggest surprises of Q1 is that market struggles are translating into higher revenues.  Shortages in parts and rising memory costs have made retail prices jump. For stores, this means a highly profitable quarter for storage and memory. Even though there are fewer items to sell, the higher price per gigabyte is boosting total earnings.

A Regional Comparison: The UK Outlier

There are notable differences amongst Europe’s top six economies. Poland and Spain have emerged as primary growth engines, with Poland seeing a staggering +68% gain in desktop revenues, while the UK remains an exception. Facing a contraction in both notebooks (-17.2%) and desktops (-10.9%), British shoppers seem to be waiting for prices to settle down before buying new hardware.

Rethinking the Tech Budget

People are changing how they spend their money. Upgrading to the newest smartphone is no longer an automatic choice. Mobile device sales are dropping as computer sales rise, due to consumers redirecting their money to upgrade their home and office setups.

This leaves retailers with one clear takeaway for mid-2026: The PC is back at the centre of the tech budget.

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