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After growing for the first time in seven years during the fourth quarter of last year, the PC market saw a second consecutive quarter of strong growth this year and sales are likely to increase even further with Black Friday just around the corner.
According to new research from Canalys, 124.5 million units were shipped during the third quarter of 2020 and the total PC market, including tablets, is up 23 percent year-on-year.
Lenovo led the charge with 23.5 million tablets, laptops and desktops shipped during the third quarter, although it was closely followed by Apple with 22.1 million Macs and iPads shipped. HP ranked third with 18.6mm units shipped, followed by Dell with 12 million and Samsung with 9.9 million.
The sharp increase in demand was likely due to more employees working from home and students switching to distance education as a result of the pandemic.
Tablets and Chromebooks
Despite the global tablet market having been declining since 2015, 44.3 million units were shipped during the third quarter of 2020 and tablet sales were up 43 percent year-on-year. Canalys analyst Victoria Li provided more insight into the growth of tablets this year in a press release, saying:
“Tablets are back from the dead, offering the perfect balance of mobility and computing power at a wide price range during such a crucial time. Tablets are a natural choice for first-time PC users who want to work with something simple and affordable. The natural extension of Android and iOS on tablets makes it easy for parents, students and educators who have dabbled in extended remote learning for the first time in their lives and prefer the ease of application installation offered by these platforms. Another contributing factor is the role these tablets play in the accelerating pace of digital transformation that businesses large and small are undertaking. “
Tablets weren’t the only big performers in the third quarter, as Chromebooks also saw impressive growth with HP leading the market with 3.2 million units shipped. At the same time, Lenovo increased Chromebook shipments by more than 300 percent to rank second with 1.8 million units shipped. Dell, Acer and Asus made up the rest of the top five Chromebook vendors in Canalys PC analysis with each company seeing strong growth and record Chromebook shipping volumes.
As countries around the world are experiencing a second wave of the coronavirus, PC, tablet and Chromebook sales are likely to continue to grow through the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 as schools return to learning. remotely and companies continue to allow their employees to work remotely. .
