IDC: China's industrial computer shipments in the first quarter increased 11.3% year-on-year

The Zhitong Finance App learned that IDC data shows that in the first quarter of 2025, China's industrial computer shipments reached 996,000 units, an increase of 11.3% over the previous year. Since shipments contracted in the same period last year, shipments in the Chinese industrial computer market have been growing for four consecutive quarters.

Driven by multiple factors, the market bottomed out and rebounded

According to IDC data, the annual shipment volume of industrial computers in China in 2024 was 3.69 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 5.1%. Macro market uncertainty and declining procurement demand from major customers will greatly affect shipments in 2024. However, along with the gradual restoration of market confidence and a rebound in customer demand in the industry, market shipments showed an upward trend.

Although the global geographical situation and trade conflict continued to escalate this year, the overall impact on the industrial control market was limited. Driven by the continuous guidance of manufacturing revitalization policies, the release of demand in strategic industries such as new energy and chip manufacturing, and multiple emerging application scenarios such as embodied robots, the industrial computer market will usher in a new growth cycle, and shipments are expected to reach 6.93 million units in 2029.

The market competition pattern maintains a strong state

The industrial computer market maintains a relatively stable competitive pattern: with a market share of over 36%, Advantech is still the most influential manufacturer in the Chinese industrial computer market. Yanxiang, North China Industrial Control, Nodaka, and Ling Hua all have positions. According to IDC's data monitoring, shipments from local manufacturers located at the bottom of the market are also steadily increasing, and it is expected that regional industrial control industry clusters will be further formed in the future.

Looking at industrial control product platforms, x86 platforms dominated by Intel still dominate, with a market share of over 80%. In the context of the deep implementation of industrial AI and edge computing, its mature and stable system ecosystem and strong computing power compatibility continue to drive demand growth. Relying on the advantages of low power consumption, Arm architecture products have achieved large-scale deployment in scenarios such as the Industrial Internet of Things and smart energy, driven by domestic SoC solutions such as RockChip. Emerging architectures such as RISC-V have flexible and customizable features to form differentiated complements in specific vertical fields. With the improvement of the heterogeneous computing ecosystem and deepening collaboration between end and edge clouds, it is expected to usher in an explosion window.

Wang Kai, research manager at IDC China, said that China's industrial computer market has entered a fast track of rapid development. On the one hand, the country's policy system to promote high-quality development of the manufacturing industry continues to deepen, injecting core driving force into the industry's growth; on the other hand, the rapid rise of emerging industries such as artificial robots is accelerating the formation of the second growth curve of the industrial computer market. It is worth noting that under the dual drive of a dynamically changing external environment and customer demand upgrades, the competitive dimension of industrial computer manufacturers has been extended from single hardware performance to comprehensive service capabilities. Building full-stack solutions covering chip modules, intelligent algorithms, and scenario-based services will become a key ability for enterprises to win the future market.