Dell says Windows 11 transition is far slower than Win 10 shift, yet PC sales have stalled

Steven

Dell says Windows 11 transition is far slower than Win 10 shift, yet PC sales have stalled

Summary

Dell told investors that the move from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is progressing much more slowly than the previous OS transition, leaving the company behind where it was at the end of support for Windows 10. COO Jeffrey Clarke said Dell is about 10–12 percentage points behind the comparable Win 10 shift, and that roughly 500 million PCs remain unable to run Windows 11 — slowing a refresh cycle that might have boosted PC sales.

Despite that, Dell expects overall PC sales to be roughly flat next year. The vendor is offsetting stagnant PC demand with a booming enterprise AI server business: Dell booked $12.3bn of AI server orders in the quarter and saw servers and networking revenue rise 37% year-over-year. However, memory and NAND price inflation — driven by manufacturers prioritising high-margin AI parts — is squeezing component availability and raising system prices.

Key Points

  • Dell says Windows 11 adoption lags the Windows 10 transition by about 10–12 percentage points.
  • Approximately 500 million PCs cannot run Windows 11, delaying a potential PC refresh cycle.
  • Dell expects PC unit sales to be roughly flat next year despite prior modest growth.
  • AI server demand is booming: $12.3bn in AI server orders, $5.6bn shipped; servers & networking revenue up 37% YoY.
  • Memory and NAND shortages — as chipmakers shift capacity to AI-focused products — are increasing costs and complicating upgrades.
  • Dell leans on refined supply-chain tactics (from COVID and tariff responses) to manage pricing, quoting and fulfilment risk.
  • Nutanix results referenced: revenue growth and ARR gains highlight customers migrating from VMware, but memory shortages could limit expansion.

Context and relevance

This matters if you buy, manage or sell PCs and servers. The slow Windows 11 transition weakens a conventional driver for PC refreshes, keeping client hardware budgets muted. At the same time, explosive demand for AI infrastructure is shifting spending into higher-margin server kit — which raises not just vendor revenue but also component competition and pricing pressure for RAM and flash.

For IT decision-makers the takeaway is twofold: don’t assume a big Windows-driven PC refresh will bail out client-side sales; plan for higher costs and longer lead times for memory and storage if you’re modernising servers to support AI. For vendors and channel partners, Dell’s results underline the strategic importance of AI server offerings and supply-chain agility.

Why should I read this?

Short version: Windows 11 isn’t the refresh engine everyone hoped for, but Dell’s AI server boom is. If you’re handling procurement, budgets or capacity planning, this piece tells you where demand — and price pressure — is actually heading. We’ve saved you the earnings call waffle.

Author note

Punchy: Dell’s earnings call is a neat snapshot of IT’s current tug-of-war — slow client upgrades vs rapid AI infrastructure buying. Read the detail if you need to decide whether to wait for cheaper memory or move now to secure capacity.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/11/26/dell_q3_2026/