PC Shipments surge, Apple extends market share

Global shipments of desktops, notebooks, and workstations grew 55.2% year-over-year. – claims recent IDC report

According to IDC, the growth rate benefitted from the shortages faced in the first quarter of 2020 in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. While PC demand remains extremely high, the lack of shortages resulted in “unusually high” first quarter growth in 2021.

The continued surge in the PC Market, as well as an increase in PC average selling prices (ASP), have been driven by growth in gaming, the need for higher performance notebooks for enterprise, and an increase in touchscreen device demand for the education market, IDC says.

Although ongoing component shortage issues is continuing to plague the industry, IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Tracker Vice President Ryan Reith says the outlook will remain upbeat for years to come.

“The ongoing shortages in the semiconductor space only further prolong the ability for vendors to refill inventory and fulfill orders to customers. We believe a fundamental shift has occurred around the PC, which will result in a more positive outlook for years to follow,” Reith said.

Apple market share grows

Apple’s Mac is continuing to see a surge in growth, with the company shipping more than double the number of units in the first quarter of 2021 than the year-ago quarter.

Apple shipped an estimated 6.7 million Mac models in Q1 2021, up from an estimated 3.1 million shipments in Q1 2020, according to new data from analysis firm IDC. The surge represents growth of 111.5% year-over-year.

Apple’s share of the market also grew during that period, from 5.8% in the first quarter of 2020 to 8% in the first quarter of 2021. Apple clocked in fourth among the top PC vendors, behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell. None of those companies saw the same type of growth.