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Sales of PCs, defined as computers with keyboards, rebounded in 2020, Reuters reported.
Credit the sudden need for remote work and study options as COVID-19 has taken hold.
Manufacturers remain months to fill existing orders, the press service reported.
“The entire supply chain has been stretched like never before,” Gregg Prendergast, Pan American president of Acer Inc., told Reuters. The company has resorted to flying PCs for consumers at its own expense, rather than relying on shipping or rail, which can take a month longer.
Global PC sales peaked in 2008, with around 300 million units sold, and have since declined to a level of around 250 million units sold each year, Reuters said – but analysts are now seeing the figure go back to around 300 million PCs shipped per year.
By the end of the year, around 1.77 billion PCs will be in use worldwide, according to data from research firm Canalys cited by Reuters. One of the reasons given is the expansion within households from one computer per family to one for every student or worker stuck at home.
One of the problems facing PC vendors is the lack of available monitors and processors, even though many factories have reopened, Reuters reported.
Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt told Reuters the pressure on suppliers was growing as consumers sought to upgrade their computers. Newer computers increasingly have better cameras than previous models. Built-in 5G or 4G connectivity is also popular.
Ryan Reith, vice chairman of analyst firm IDC, told Reuters that another factor driving the surge in demand – and likely to drive it through 2021 – is stimulus funding government.
Reuters quoted Dell Technologies Inc. chairman Sam Burd for recently saying that technologies such as artificial intelligence will soon fuel a “renaissance” in PC use.
Dell’s third-quarter direct sales to consumers through e-commerce channels increased 62% year over year, Reuters said.
The laptop shortage in the United States was so severe in August that major manufacturers told school district officials they would be struggling to fill orders, the Associated Press reported. The press collaboration said the shortage at the time was 4 or 5 million units – just for customers in the education sector.
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NEW PYMNTS DATA: THE DECEMBER 2020 SUBSCRIPTION BUNDLING REPORT
About: The PYMNTS Subscription Bundling Report polled a census-balanced panel of 2,962 U.S. consumers to assess how their attitudes toward bundled subscription services have changed during the pandemic, especially those offered by companies in the streaming industry. The report also examines how knowledge that a COVID-19 vaccine will soon be available in the United States could affect their perceptions.
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