Global shipments of personal computers rose at their fastest pace in two decades in the first quarter as people bought computers to help them work and study remotely during the Covid-19 crisis, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

“It is still reasonable to conclude that PC demand could remain strong even after stay-home restrictions ease,” Gartner said.

PC shipments, which include both laptops and desktop computers, grew 32 per cent in the quarter to 69.9 million units, Gartner said.
According to research firm IDC, the global shipments of traditional PCs, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations up 55.2 per cent year over year during the first quarter of 2021. A total of 84 million PCs were sold worldwide in 1Q21, and while this was a modest decline of 8 per cent from Q4 2020, as IDC said, this was the smallest post-holiday-season drop since 2012, when sales declined by 7.5 per cent.
China’s Lenovo Group Ltd grabbed the lead with a 25.1 per cent market share. The second spot was occupied by HP that sold 19,237 PC units in Q1 2021 and captured 22.9 per cent of the market share. The third spot was occupied by Dell Technologies with 12,946 units of PCs being sold in Q1 2021. The company captured 15.4 per cent of the market share.
“This growth should be viewed in the context of two unique factors: comparisons against a pandemic-constrained market and the current global semiconductor shortage,” said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner.

“Without the shipment chaos in early 2020, this quarter’s growth may have been lower.”

The coronavirus-driven surge in demand, along with an unprecedented shortage in semiconductor microchips, has strained the supply chain of personal computers.

While the chip shortage was originally concentrated in the auto industry, it has now spread to a range of other consumer electronics, including smartphones, refrigerators and microwaves.

Gartner said that demand for Chromebook by Alphabet Inc’s Google, which it does not account for in its analysis, tripled in the first quarter thanks to strong demand from educational institutions in North America.