FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Octo­ber 12, 2020 – As the glo­bal pan­de­mic rages on and many count­ries around the world enter the second wave of COVID-19 infec­tions, con­ti­nui­ty of busi­ness and online schoo­ling remain at the fore­front of every eco­no­my. This led to dou­ble-digit growth in the tra­di­tio­nal PC mar­ket, com­pri­sed of desk­tops, note­books, and work­sta­tions, as glo­bal ship­ments grew 14.6% year over year to 81.3 mil­li­on units in the third quar­ter of 2020 (3Q20), accor­ding to preli­mi­na­ry results from the Inter­na­tio­nal Data Cor­po­ra­ti­on (IDC) World­wi­de Quar­ter­ly Per­so­nal Com­pu­ting Device Tra­cker.

“Con­su­mer demand and insti­tu­tio­nal demand approa­ched record levels in some cases,” said Jitesh Ubra­ni rese­arch mana­ger for IDC’s Mobi­le Device Tra­ckers. “Gam­ing, Chrome­books, and in some cases cel­lu­lar-enab­led note­books were all bright spots during the quar­ter. Had the mar­ket not been ham­pe­red by com­po­nent shorta­ges, note­book ship­ments would have soared even hig­her during the third quar­ter as mar­ket appe­ti­te was yet unsatiated.”

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, shorta­ges of mul­ti­ple com­pon­ents, such as pro­ces­sors, panels, and other sub­com­pon­ents, led to missed oppor­tu­ni­ty for many ven­dors. “The PC indus­try rode into the third quar­ter with a sizeable back­log of unful­fil­led orders,” said Linn Huang, rese­arch vice pre­si­dent, Devices and Dis­plays at IDC. “And it appears the quar­ter will end under the same auspi­ces. Given that the shorta­ges have been due more to a short­fall of busi­ness plan­ning than a tech­ni­cal glitch, we do not anti­ci­pa­te a sud­den sur­ge in capa­ci­ty. Con­se­quent­ly, this back­log will likely car­ry into 2021.”

Regio­nal Highlights

Asia/Pacific (exclu­ding Japan) (APeJ): The Tra­di­tio­nal PC mar­ket pos­ted a sin­gle digit increase in the regi­on with results coming in abo­ve IDC’s fore­cast. Ship­ments were dri­ven by inven­to­ry rep­le­nish­ments and strong demand for note­books as end users across the regi­on con­tin­ued to purcha­se devices for work from home, online lear­ning, and enter­tain­ment purposes.

Cana­da: The Tra­di­tio­nal PC mar­ket remain­ed extre­me­ly acti­ve, pos­ting the 17th con­se­cu­ti­ve quar­ter of gains. This is the second quar­ter whe­re COVID-19-rela­ted rest­ric­tions were in effect, con­ti­nuing to boost demand from Cana­di­an house­holds and from orga­niza­ti­ons loo­king to ensu­re busi­ness con­ti­nui­ty through stay-at-home situa­tions. The need for com­pu­ting devices in Cana­da should remain high throug­hout the win­ter but spen­ding might be impac­ted by the macro-eco­no­mic situa­ti­on, incre­asing pres­su­re on avera­ge sel­ling pri­ces for the fore­seeable future.

Euro­pe, Midd­le East, and Afri­ca (EMEA): Tra­di­tio­nal PC ship­ments achie­ved high sin­gle-digit growth in 3Q20 as ano­ther excep­tio­nal quar­ter of growth for note­book out­weig­hed hea­vy desk­top decli­nes. The ongo­ing lock­downs con­tin­ued to dri­ve high demand for note­books to enable enter­tain­ment, working, and stu­dy­ing from home. Howe­ver, with offices lar­ge­ly remai­ning clo­sed the­re was limi­t­ed demand for sta­tio­na­ry devices.

Japan: The GIGA pro­ject through which stu­dents all over the coun­try recei­ve PCs and tablets for online lear­ning, as well as strong work-from-home demand hel­ped main­tain flat growth in the tra­di­tio­nal PC mar­ket. The con­su­mer seg­ment decli­ned year over year due to the high base­line set last year by the con­sump­ti­on tax hike and Win­dows 10 migrations.

Latin Ame­ri­ca: The tra­di­tio­nal PC mar­ket pos­ted dou­ble-digit growth for first time in five years. Despi­te pri­ce increa­ses and eco­no­mic con­trac­tions in many count­ries, the demand for por­ta­bi­li­ty con­ti­nues to rise. Hig­her note­book demand due to work-from-home and online lear­ning sus­tained the region’s growth, which is expec­ted to con­ti­nue in most count­ries into ear­ly 2021.

USA: The tra­di­tio­nal PC mar­ket wit­nessed yet ano­ther extra­or­di­na­ry quar­ter pos­ting strong dou­ble-digit ship­ment growth. Preli­mi­na­ry results reflect con­tin­ued strong buy­er sen­ti­ment fue­led by stay-at-home PC needs and resul­tant inven­to­ry rep­le­nish­ment. While note­book ship­ments streng­the­ned fur­ther due to sus­tained demand from the con­su­mer and edu­ca­ti­on seg­ments, the desk­top mar­ket decli­ned year over year but found some respi­te as gam­ing sys­tems remain­ed in demand.

Notes:

• Some IDC esti­ma­tes pri­or to finan­cial ear­nings reports. Data for all com­pa­nies are repor­ted for calen­dar periods.
• Ship­ments include ship­ments to dis­tri­bu­ti­on chan­nels or end users. OEM sales are coun­ted under the company/brand under which they are sold.
• Tra­di­tio­nal PCs include Desk­tops, Note­books, and Work­sta­tions and do not include Tablets or x86 Ser­vers. Detacha­ble Tablets and Sla­te Tablets are part of the Per­so­nal Com­pu­ting Device Tra­cker but are not addres­sed in this press release.

 

IDC’s World­wi­de Quar­ter­ly Per­so­nal Com­pu­ting Device Tra­cker gathers detail­ed mar­ket data in over 90 count­ries. The rese­arch includes his­to­ri­cal and fore­cast trend ana­ly­sis among other data.

For more infor­ma­ti­on, or to sub­scri­be to the rese­arch, plea­se cont­act Kathy Nagam­i­ne at 650–350-6423 or knagamine@idc.com.

About IDC Trackers

IDC Tra­cker pro­ducts pro­vi­de accu­ra­te and time­ly mar­ket size, com­pa­ny share, and fore­casts for hundreds of tech­no­lo­gy mar­kets from more than 100 count­ries around the glo­be. Using pro­prie­ta­ry tools and rese­arch pro­ces­ses, IDC’s Tra­ckers are updated on a semi­an­nu­al, quar­ter­ly, and month­ly basis. Tra­cker results are deli­ver­ed to cli­ents in user-fri­end­ly Excel deli­ver­a­bles and on-line query tools.

Click here to learn about IDC’s full suite of data pro­ducts and how you can levera­ge them to grow your business.

About IDC

Inter­na­tio­nal Data Cor­po­ra­ti­on (IDC) is the pre­mier glo­bal pro­vi­der of mar­ket intel­li­gence, advi­so­ry ser­vices, and events for the infor­ma­ti­on tech­no­lo­gy, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, and con­su­mer tech­no­lo­gy mar­kets. With more than 1,100 ana­lysts world­wi­de, IDC offers glo­bal, regio­nal, and local exper­ti­se on tech­no­lo­gy and indus­try oppor­tu­ni­ties and trends in over 110 count­ries. IDC’s ana­ly­sis and insight helps IT pro­fes­sio­nals, busi­ness exe­cu­ti­ves, and the invest­ment com­mu­ni­ty to make fact-based tech­no­lo­gy decis­i­ons and to achie­ve their key busi­ness objec­ti­ves. Foun­ded in 1964, IDC is a whol­ly-owned sub­si­dia­ry of Inter­na­tio­nal Data Group (IDG), the world’s lea­ding tech media, data and mar­ke­ting ser­vices com­pa­ny. To learn more about IDC, plea­se visit www.idc.com. Fol­low IDC on Twit­ter at @IDC and Lin­ke­dIn. Sub­scri­be to the IDC Blog for indus­try news and insights: http://bit.ly/IDCBlog_Subscribe.

 

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