What just happened? Canalys said shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations grew one percent year over year, pushing full-year shipments to 341 million units. That’s 15 percent higher than 2020 and 27 percent higher than 2019 levels. In fact, it’s the largest PC shipment total since 2012.
The smartphone industry wasn’t the only one booming in 2021 as PC shipments reached 92 million units in the fourth quarter, surpassing the 90 million mark for the second year in a row.
Drilling deeper, Canalys said notebooks and mobile workstations continued to lead the charge with shipments totaling 275 million units. Desktop and desktop workstation shipments accounted for the remaining 66 million units shipped last year.
Lenovo led the way both in terms of Q4 and full-year shipments at 21.7 million units and 82.1 million units shipped, respectively. HP, Dell and Apple followed in that order, again both in Q4 and for the full year.
Speaking of full year, Apple had the highest growth rate at 28.3 percent and also in Q4 at 9.0 percent (compared to the same period a year earlier).
The firm said market growth highlights just how important PCs have become since the onset of the pandemic.
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“While 2021 was the year of digital transformation, 2022 will be the year of digital acceleration,” said Canalys principal analyst Rushabh Doshi. “The importance of faster, better, more resilient and more secure PCs has never been greater, and the industry is willing to innovate and push the boundaries to keep this momentum going,” Doshi added.
Ishan Dutt, senior analyst at Canalys, said PCs are now in the hands of both young students and older family members, and that ownership of two or more PCs per person in developed nations has become the norm.
Image credit: Marvin Meyer