The PC market simply had one other massive 12 months due to pandemic demand

The PC market skilled its first massive progress in a decade throughout 2020, when the pandemic started to power folks to work and be taught from dwelling. Market analysis corporations Gartner and IDC at the moment are reporting that the worldwide PC market has grown once more all through 2021, as demand for conventional PCs continued throughout a world chip scarcity.

Nearly 340 million PCs had been shipped in 2021, in line with Gartner. That’s an almost 10 % enhance over the already unprecedented numbers seen in 2020. IDC places the determine at 348.8 million, up practically 15 %.

“2021 has truly been a return to form for the PC,” stated Jitesh Ubrani, a analysis supervisor at IDC. “Consumer need for PCs in emerging markets and global commercial demand remained strong during the quarter with supply being a gating factor.” Ongoing provide points regarding a world chip scarcity imply the PC market “could have been even larger than it was in 2021,” in line with Tom Mainelli, an government at IDC.

Image: Gartner

Image: IDC

Gartner reviews that 2021 noticed the best cargo quantity of PCs since 2013, after a 2017 milestone of 5 years of PC decline. “As a result, annual PC shipment volumes are not expected to decline to pre-pandemic levels for at least 2-3 years,” explains Mikako Kitagawa, analysis director at Gartner.

While the worldwide 2021 figures had been optimistic for the PC market, the fourth quarter within the US was hit by provide chain points and what Gartner describes as a “collapse in demand for Chromebooks.” This may imply the surprising PC progress we’ve seen all through 2020 and 2021 gained’t proceed this 12 months.

The pandemic has revived the PC marketplace for two straight years, although. Microsoft additionally launched Windows 11 final 12 months, after declaring “the PC is back” at the start of the pandemic due to a giant bounce in Windows utilization. AMD and Intel have additionally simply launched their newest laptop computer chips at CES 2022, so count on to see much more new PCs at shops quickly.