The second quarter of 2021 can be considered as the first of the post-pandemic. Although some countries experience high rates of contagion, it was the first in which most countries abandoned strict restrictions. therefore, it turns out to know how computer shipments evolved compared to last year.
How did shipments evolve in the global market?
According to a survey According to the specialized consulting firm Canalyst, the market for desktop computers, notebooks and tablets grew by 10%, which translates into 121,7 million units. Lenovo is still the king. It had a growth of 23% reaching 24,7 million units shipped. Apple remained in second place with a growth of 5% which makes a total of shipments of 20,6 million units. HP, for its part, shipped 18,6 million units, 2,7% more than a year ago.
Chromebooks
The category that grew the most was that of Chromebooks, which added 75% annually, which means a volume of shipments of 11,9 million units. Linux users can well consider this good news, since the most recent models have support for the installation of Linux applications.
The worst performance was from tablets, whose growth in the second quarter only added 4% year-on-year, reaching 39,1 million units.
Chromebooks appear to be a very profitable segment for brand-name equipment manufacturers. In terms of growth, HP ranked first with 4,3 million units and a growth of 116% in the second quarter. Lenovo came in second with 2,6 million units up 82% from a year ago. Acer was in third place with growth of 83,0% or 1,8 million units shipped.
Brian Lynch, an analyst at the consultancy, commented:
The success of Chromebooks is proving remarkably resilient
Their growth trend lasted well beyond the height of the pandemic, as they have consolidated a healthy position in all end-user segments of the sector. even as key markets like North America and Western Europe have started opening schools, shipments remain high while governments and educational ecosystems plan the long-term integration of Chromebooks into digital learning processes. With Chrome mastering in the relatively safe educational space, Google is willing to bet heavily on the commercial segment this year. We expect to see a strong focus on attracting small businesses with updated services such as the new "Individual" subscription level for Google Workspace and promotions on CloudReady licenses to repurpose old PCs for deployment alongside existing fleets of Chromebooks. However, as Apple intends to extend its M1 success to the commercial space and Microsoft released Windows 11, the PC operating system race will be the most contested in a long time. "
Tablets
In the tablet market, not all manufacturers got the same result, although in general, shipments to the distribution channel are still higher than before the pandemic.
Here is Apple who leads with 14,2 million iPads shipped. although it had a slight decrease. Samsung increased shipments by 13,8% to reach 8 million units shipped. But, the one that grew the most was Lenovo with 78%, shipping 4,7 million units.
Regarding what we can expect in the future, Himani Mukka another analyst said that his company:
expects to see more integration between tablet and PC, allowing for a smoother transition of workflow between various devices, which will be especially attractive to those who operate hybrid and on-the-go work styles. This will certainly be the case for iPads and Macs, but the introduction of Windows 11 in the cloud and its use on devices that can run Android bodes well for tablet vendors, users, and developers beyond the ecosystem. from Apple.