PC market progress slows amid world chip shortages

The PC market is exhibiting early indicators of its progress slowing down, after a formidable run of shipments all through 2020. Both IDC and Gartner conclude that progress within the second quarter of PC shipments has slowed this yr. Demand for brand new PCs remains to be above what we noticed earlier than the pandemic hit, however a mix of softer demand and the consequences of the worldwide chip scarcity imply it’s not rising as shortly.

“The market faces mixed signals as far as demand is concerned,” says Neha Mahajan, a senior analysis analyst at IDC. “With businesses opening back up, demand potential in the commercial segment appears promising. However, there are also early indicators of consumer demand slowing down as people shift spending priorities after nearly a year of aggressive PC buying.”

IDC says greater than 83 million PCs had been shipped within the second quarter of 2021, whereas Gartner’s personal determine is greater than 71 million. Gartner doesn’t embrace Chromebook shipments in its outcomes, however the analysis agency says “Chromebook shipments were once again strong in the second quarter of 2021.” Either means, each corporations agree that year-over-year progress on this newest quarter wasn’t as sturdy as 2020’s sudden progress.

That doesn’t imply PC gross sales are about to abruptly plummet, however the first huge progress we noticed in a decade could possibly be beginning to wane. Lenovo remains to be the highest PC producer worldwide, and Gartner says Apple, Acer, and Asus all grew sooner than the general market thanks to raised availability of client PCs. “The consumer PC market was less impacted by shortages than the enterprise market, as vendors can be more flexible in the system design of consumer models, enabling workarounds for certain supply constraints,” says Gartner.

While there are clearly early indicators of slowing progress within the PC market, Microsoft and its OEM companions shall be hoping to revitalize PCs even additional later this yr. Windows 11 will probably arrive in October, and Microsoft’s minimal {hardware} necessities imply many might want to improve PCs. A brand new model of Windows all the time comes with huge advertising and marketing campaigns, and Windows 11 shall be no completely different. With Apple’s spectacular M1 MacBooks and Intel reviving the Mac vs. PC advertisements, this yr is sure to be an fascinating interval for the PC market.