Fourth-quarter figures from Canalys for the global PC market show that rumors that the surge in PC shipments during the pandemic were beginning to falter were false.
According to the analyst firm, in 2021 total PC shipments reached 341 million units, up 15% from already strong 2020 sales. deliveries of 2019. And this is the highest annual figure since 2012. Even more impressively, this result was achieved with relatively weak growth during the fourth quarter holiday season, which only saw an increase 1% year-on-year compared to 2020.
Although shipments only increased 1% in the fourth quarter, global PC market revenue soared 11% to $70 billion, while annual revenue rose 15% to $250 billion. billion in 2021. This generated a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% which, according to Canalys, “underlines how much the importance of PCs has grown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Lenovo still in the lead
New remote workers apparently prefer laptops and mobile workstations to desktop computers. These product categories are growing by 16% and represent 275 million of the 341 million total deliveries. Desktop computers and desktop workstations have grown at less than half that figure, growing just 7% since 2020, to 66 million units.
Lenovo once again took the lead among global PC makers in 2021, with 24.1% of shipments, down a modest 0.3% from its 2020 ranking. Lenovo is followed by HP, which holds 21.7% of the market with a 1% year-over-year decline. The rest of the top 5 is occupied by Dell with 17.4% (up 1.5% since last year), Apple with 8.5% (down 0.9% since last year) and Acer with 7.1% (up 0.4% since last year).
Canalys principal analyst Rushabh Doshi says these numbers make 2022 a year of “digital acceleration”. He predicts that there will be “revenue growth in the industry from spending on PCs, displays, accessories and other high-end technology products that allow us to work from anywhere, collaborate globally and remain ultra-productive.” This is despite supply chain disruptions which Doshi says are apparently set to continue well into 2022.
Additional details on the global PC market in 2021 are available in Canalys’ latest release.
Source: “ZDNet.com”