The global PC market continued its growth streak in the second quarter of 2021, as shipments of desktops and notebooks, including workstations, rose 13% year on year to hit 82.3 million units, according to the latest Canalys data. Demand remains high, particularly due to a strong commercial segment, as the pandemic-driven urgency for consumers to get their hands on PCs is starting to wane. Component supply issues remain a problem for the industry, but the extent of order shortfalls and backlogs is reducing. Notebook and mobile workstation shipments grew 15% year on year, reaching 66.7 million units, while desktop and desktop workstation shipments were up 6% at 15.6 million units.
The top five PC vendors all managed to sustain shipment growth in Q2 2021, with commercial demand from recovering businesses acting as the key driver. Lenovo extended its lead at the top, with impressive annual growth of 14.7% and shipments above the 20-million-unit mark for a third consecutive quarter. HP held onto second place but with the smallest shipment volume growth of the top five, up just 2.8% as it suffered slowdowns in EMEA and Japan. Dell posted healthy growth of 16.5% to close in on the top two, with its strength in the commercial sector coming to the fore as business recovery drove new orders. Apple and Acer rounded out the top five with double-digit growth, posting shipments of 6.4 million and 6.0 million units respectively.
“The PC market could not be in a better position,” said Canalys Research Director Rushabh Doshi. “The slowdown in consumer demand, stemming from fulfilment of backlogs and greater market penetration, has been nicely balanced by growing commercial demand, as markets around the world limp back to normality. PC vendors now have two key business opportunities – first-time PC users and upgraders. With the installed base having blown up massively in the past year, upgrade opportunities will provide a strong long-term sales pipeline. Let us not forget, some of the most exciting platform innovation is happening now. Apple with ARM and macOS updates, Microsoft with Windows 11 and Google with Chrome OS are poised to make PCs their next battlefield, which can only benefit vendors and their supply chain partners.”
Note: tablets (slates and detachables) are not addressed in this press release. Chromebooks are included as a subset of notebooks.
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