The PC market has just had its first big growth in 10 years

The PC was supposed to die 10 years ago, but has just experienced its first major growth in a decade. Market research firm Canalys reports that PC shipments reached 297 million units in 2020, an impressive 11% increase over 2019. IDC estimates 302 million shipments for the year, an increase of 13.1% year on year. after year. Gartner also agrees that 2020 was a great year for PCs and the biggest growth we’ve seen since 2010.

PC shipments have increased thanks to ongoing demand related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Supply restrictions made it difficult to buy a new laptop in the middle of the year, and demand continued throughout 2020. “Demand is pushing the PC market forward and all signs indicate that this increase still has a long way to go. to go, ”said Ryan Reith of IDC. While housework and remote learning have been the biggest drivers, people are also turning to PCs and laptops for fun.

Mynd af Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

“The obvious drivers for last year’s growth have focused on working from home and remote learning needs, but the strength of the consumer market should not be overlooked,” says Reith. “We continue to see gaming PCs and monitor sales at historical levels and Chrome-based devices are expanding beyond education for the consumer market.”

There were other signs throughout 2020 that PC sales were increasing. Microsoft declared “the PC is back” at the start of the pandemic, and the company also saw a huge jump in Windows usage after reporting 1 billion Windows 10 users. Microsoft also adjusted its plans for Windows 10X as a result of pandemic and increased demand for PCs. The 10X was originally supposed to ship on dual-screen devices, but Microsoft now plans to launch the operating system variant first on single-screen laptops.

PCs were instrumental in how companies quickly went digital or allowed employees to continue remotely in 2020. “The digital transformation that the world undertook last year is unmatched and PCs were at the center of this change,” said the director Research Center, Rushabh Doshi. “It will be extremely difficult to discard the PC as some of us did a few years ago. PCs are here to stay. “

I have long argued that there is no such thing as a “post-PC” era, and 2020 certainly proved how valuable laptops and PCs are.

Canalys and IDC agree that Lenovo was the main PC supplier in 2020, followed by HP in second place and Dell in third. Apple has also seen impressive growth with its shipments of up to 17%, according to Canalys, or up to 29% based on IDC estimates.

Apple has also impressed reviewers and industry experts with its new Arm-based M1 chip. This puts the MacBook Air back on top of the laptop recommendations and will set the stage for a laptop processor battle for years to come.

Update, January 11 at 4 pm ET: Article updated with Gartner’s PC shipment report.