As much of the world remains in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, global shipments of personal computing (PC) devices have continued on an upward trajectory.
According to market analysts Canalys, the third quarter of 2020 was “stellar” for the global PC market in terms of growth, with 124.5 million units sold. That’s up 23 percent up year-on-year and includes desktop computers, laptops and tablets.
Lenovo remains the world’s number one PC vendor, with 23.5 million units sold. Apple is second with 22.1 million, followed by HP, Dell and Samsung.
Looking at different devices and form factors, Chromebooks were the best performing PC product for the quarter, with 9.4 million units shipped (122 percent growth). The overall desktop market fell 32 percent, but all-in-one machines grew seven percent.
Tablets are also making a comeback, according to analysts. Globally, 44.3 million units were sold this quarter, up 43 percent year-on-year, driven by their reputation as an affordable computing option.
Apple leads the tablet market with 47 percent growth and 15.2 million units sold, followed by Samsung with 9 million units sold (80 percent growth). Huawei, Amazon and Lenovo rounded out the top five.
“Tablets have come back from the dead as they deliver the perfect balance of mobility and computing power at a wide range of price points during such a crucial time,” said Victoria Li, Canalys Analyst.
“Connected tablets allow businesses to deploy endpoints at crucial stages in their customer and salesforce journeys, thereby helping these businesses ride the storm. Tablets will find themselves at the heart of every digital transformation going forward.”