(Bloomberg) — Global personal computer shipments climbed in the second quarter, when vendors patched supply-chain issues and consumer demand for laptops surged with more people forced to work from home.
PC makers shipped 2.8% more devices in the three-month period compared with a year earlier, for a total of 64.8 million units, according to preliminary data released Thursday by researcher Gartner Inc. Rival industry analyst IDC pegged the year-over-year increase at 11%. Both firms said the increase was fueled by particularly strong growth in Europe and the U.S.
Major PC makers endured supply chain breakdowns during the first few months of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic ground some manufacturing to a halt in the Asia-Pacific region, which produces key computer components. Vendors had little stock for some products while also facing stronger demand as billions of people around the world fled their offices to minimize the spread of Covid-19.
“The strong demand driven by work-from-home as well as e-learning needs has surpassed previous expectations and has once again put the PC at the center of consumers’ tech portfolio,” Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC, said in a statement.
HP Inc. and China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. each held about 25% of the global market. Gartner put Lenovo barely ahead while IDC had Palo Alto, California-based HP as No. 1 for the quarter. Dell Technologies Inc. and Apple Inc. rounded out the top four on both lists.
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