As of: 01/13/2022 9:07 a.m.
The corona pandemic and the associated work from home provided a further boost in PC sales last year. The market was slowed down by the shortage of chips.
The demand for desktop computers, PCs for short, is still not exhausted. In the past year, according to calculations by market researchers, sales rose to the highest level in almost ten years. The market was further slowed down by the shortage of chips and other components. Three large IT market researchers, who presented their estimates during the night, came to largely the same trends – but in some cases to different numbers.
According to the analysis firms IDC and Canalys, which are dominant in this segment, the market grew by almost 15 percent in 2021. The competitor Gartner assumes an increase of 9.9 percent. Their calculations for the number of personal computers sold ranged from just under 340 million (Gartner) to around 349 million (IDC). The differences are due to the fact that the experts conduct their own research in sales channels – and in some cases also take different device categories into account.
Lenovo still in first place
The market researchers were unanimous in the distribution of the top positions in the ranking of large PC providers. As in previous years, the market leader is the state-owned Chinese company Lenovo. The experts estimate that around one in four PCs sold worldwide came from him in the past year. This enables the company to defend its market share, which has been shown for over five years.
Closely behind is the US manufacturer HP Inc with a market share of just over 20 percent, followed by Dell, which also comes from the USA, with around 17 percent. Apple, the world’s most valuable corporation, ranks fourth with its Macs with a market share of around eight percent – but increased sales more than the competition. Canalys even calculated a plus of a good 28 percent for the computers of the iPhone group, which recently gave the share a boost.
Chip shortage is dampening demand
PC sales had plummeted with the proliferation of smartphones – because consumers were spending more time on their mobile devices and companies were refreshing their computer parks less than before. But the corona pandemic changed the situation suddenly. With more work and study at home, one PC per household was no longer enough. Companies began to replace desktops with laptops. The surge in demand is seen as a trigger for the global shortage of chips.
IDC analyst Tom Mainelli pointed out that the year-end offer was still being held back by the shortage. At Gartner, however, analyst Mikako Kitagawa already sees the end of the corona boom in the PC market near. However, it will take two to three years for sales to drop to pre-pandemic levels, she predicted.