While 2020 started with a huge hit to supply chains around the world, it has been an exceptional year for the PC market, as more and more people shifted to remote working and learning. Thus, the market posted a third consecutive quarter of growth, with PC shipments increasing by 25% over the same time last year, according to a report from Canalys. This, paired with stellar performance in Q2 and Q3, has allowed the market to grow by 11% in 2020, which is the highest full year growth since 2010. Overall, about 297 million units were shipped last year.
The report said that worldwide PC market growth in 2020 was singlehandedly driven by notebooks and mobile workstations, which saw a 44% increase in shipments to reach 235.1 million units. However, in contrast, desktop and desktop workstation shipments fell 20% from last year to reach 61.9 million units in 2020.
Coming back to Q4, the market grew by 13% over Q3, which was already a massive quarter from the PC industry.
Lenovo, as usual, held the first place in the PC market, shipping 23.1 million units with an year-on-year growth of 29%. It was also the biggest supplier for the entire year, with 72.6 million units and a market share of 24.5%.
HP came in second, both in Q4 and 2020, with 19.1 million units in the quarter, and 67.6 million units in the entire year. This netted the company a 22.8% market share.
Dell was third, with a 27% growth in shipments in Q4, with 15.794 million devices sold. Over the year, it shipped over 50 million units, retaining a market share of 16.9%.
Apple and Acer were 4th and 5th respectively, both for the entire year and the last quarter. The difference in market share was pretty negligible. While Apple sold 22.5 million units over the entire year, Acer sold over 20 million.
“The digital transformation the world has undertaken over the past year is unparalleled, and PCs were at the heart of this change. As the world readies itself to get vaccinated and overcome the COVID-19 virus, it is important to remember that PCs have played a vital role at every stage of this fight, from understanding the virus and synthesizing the vaccine, to social monitoring and vaccine roll-out. It is going to be extremely difficult to write off the PC as some of us did a few years ago. PCs are here to stay,” said Rushabh Doshi, Canalys Research Director.
According to Ishan Dutt, Analyst at Canalys, 2021 will be even better for the PC industry, “with vendors and ecosystem players refusing to rest on their laurels as they compete for the new demand opportunities that have emerged in 2020.”
“Innovations in chipsets, operating systems, connectivity and form factors will take center stage as the PC industry caters to a broader range of customers that bring with them new behaviors and use cases. From Apple and Microsoft’s new custom silicon to the exciting platform updates to Chrome and Windows, the PC industry is moving at breakneck speed to cater to its newfound user base. While supply shortages continue to dampen the market in the short term, Canalys believes most wrinkles will be ironed out by the second half of 2021,” he added.
