In the fourth quarter of 2020, the global PC market grew by 25 percent, compared to the same period last year. According to new data from market analysts Canalys, a record 90.3 million units were purchased worldwide, excluding tablets.
The report states that Q4 stood on the shoulders of a stellar Q3, recording an additional 13 percent growth over the previous quarter. The year as a whole saw 11 percent more computers shipped than in 2019.
But not all device categories enjoyed such mouth-watering performance. While 25 percent more notebooks and mobile workstations were sold last year (235.1 million units), desktop and desktop workstation shipments fell by almost a quarter (22 percent) to 61.9 million units.
Lenovo held on to the first place in the PC market for the quarter, recording 23.1 million units shipped, with 29 percent growth year-on-year. It was also the best-performing company for the year, with 72.6 million total units sold and a market share of 24.5 percent.
HP was second with 19.1 million units sold, while Dell took third spot with 50.3 million devices shipped. Apple and Acer rounded out the top five.
“The industry deserves all the success that has come its way. We would be in a very different position had it not been for the commitment of the PC industry, including the vendors, the supply chain and the distribution channel, to make sure that every bit of market demand was met,” said Rushabh Doshi, Canalys Research Director.
“The digital transformation the world has undertaken over the past year is unparalleled, and PCs were at the heart of this change. As the world readies itself to get vaccinated and overcome the COVID-19 virus, it is important to remember that PCs have played a vital role at every stage of this fight, from understanding the virus and synthesizing the vaccine, to social monitoring and vaccine roll-out. It is going to be extremely difficult to write off the PC as some of us did a few years ago. PCs are here to stay.”
