Customers looking at laptops at a Best Buy in Los Angeles.
Getty Images
A lot of people and companies are still buying PCs, extending a boom that began last year during the Covid-19 pandemic because people needed computers to work or go to home school.
PC shipments to retailers and other suppliers increased by 32% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2020, according to a new estimate by Gartner. The research firm said it was the highest growth rate of computers it has tracked since 2000 and estimated that 69.9 million laptops and desktops were delivered in that quarter.
PC shipments fell sharply in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic before resuming later in the year, making an easy comparison. But the boom is real and on an absolute basis: total PC deliveries were also the highest since 2015, when they reached 71.7 million, according to Gartner.
Gartner’s stats don’t include Chromebooks, which are cheap laptops that run a Google-designed browser operating system and are popular with schools. Including Chromebooks, Gartner estimates that the computer market grew by 47% in terms of the number of deliveries in that quarter.
Monday’s report suggests that PC sales are strong at the moment and that an increase in home PC sales may not end as offices remind more workers and students return to school. . Statistics also suggest that PCs will continue to require a lot of new chips and other components during a global semiconductor shortage.
“We believe that at least this year, especially in the first half of this year, demand for PCs will remain strong. The question is how strong it will be in the second half of this year until next year,” said Gartner researcher Mikako Kitagawa. . CNBC.
The first quarter is usually a slow time for PC sales, especially compared to the holiday quarter.
Kitagawa said this quarter’s results could have been even stronger if not for a global shortage of chips and other supply chain issues that are forcing some PC vendors to say they will deliver computers months later than usually.
“The supply chain was completely cut off a year ago, and the supply chain is broken right now due to a global shortage of semiconductors,” Kitagawa said.
According to the report, the best PC manufacturers are Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, Acer and Asus.
Other sales estimates also suggest a hot PC market during this period: Canalys estimates that the computer market grew by 55% in that quarter, and IDC also estimates a 55% increase.