World­wi­de PC ship­ments tota­led 79.4 mil­li­on units in the fourth quar­ter of 2020, a 10.7% increase from the fourth quar­ter of 2019, accor­ding to preli­mi­na­ry results by Gart­ner, Inc. For the year, PC ship­ments rea­ched 275 mil­li­on units in 2020, a 4.8% increase from 2019 and the hig­hest growth in ten years.

“The world­wi­de PC mar­ket saw a strong finish to 2020, recor­ding a third con­se­cu­ti­ve quar­ter of year over year growth, alt­hough the­re con­tin­ued to be sup­p­ly shorta­ges due to this high demand,” said Mika­ko Kitag­awa, rese­arch direc­tor at Gart­ner. “Robust con­su­mer PC demand again dro­ve sales, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in regi­ons whe­re govern­ments main­tain stay-at-home orders as the COVID-19 pan­de­mic per­sists. Pri­or to 2020, con­su­mers had been shif­ting to a pho­ne-first focus, yet the pan­de­mic rever­sed this trend. PCs have resur­faced as an essen­ti­al device as con­su­mers, inclu­ding youn­ger child­ren, are rely­ing on them to for work, school, socia­li­zing and be enter­tai­ned from their homes.

“Busi­ness PC spen­ding was again wea­k­er this quar­ter, as the urgent purcha­ses for remo­te work pea­k­ed ear­lier in the year. Howe­ver, in cer­tain regi­ons like Chi­na whe­re eco­no­mic reco­very from the pan­de­mic has alre­a­dy begun, busi­ness growth was slight­ly stronger.”

While Gart­ner does not include Chrome­book ship­ments in its tra­di­tio­nal PC mar­ket results, the fourth quar­ter of 2020 was ano­ther remar­kab­le peri­od of growth for Chrome­books, with ship­ments incre­asing around 200% year over year to reach 11.7 mil­li­on units. In 2020, Chrome­book ship­ments increased over 80% to total near­ly 30 mil­li­on units, lar­ge­ly due to demand from the North Ame­ri­can edu­ca­ti­on market.

The top three ven­dors in the world­wi­de PC mar­ket remain­ed unch­an­ged from the pre­vious quar­ter, alt­hough Leno­vo con­tin­ued to widen its lead over HP. Reflec­ting the trend seen throug­hout 2020, con­su­mer-ori­en­ted ven­dors such as Apple, Acer and Asus gai­ned mar­ket share (see Table 1). (…) Wei­ter­le­sen »