Monday, July 12th 2021
PC Demand Remained Strong in the Second Quarter Amid Early Signs That Market Conditions May Be Cooling, According to IDC
The surge in PC demand continued through the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) despite global component shortages and logistics issues. Worldwide shipments of Traditional PCs, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, reached 83.6 million units in 2Q21, up 13.2% from the second quarter of 2020, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Elevated demand for PCs combined with shortages that greatly impacted the supply of notebooks led to desktop growth outpacing that of notebooks during the quarter.
"The PC market's hot streak continued to drive heavy investments from the supply side including the entry of new vendors as well as additional spend from underdogs," said Jitesh Ubrani research manager for IDC's Mobile and Consumer Device Trackers. "And while the top 5 continue to drive volume, the smaller vendors have helped drive growth by offering unique features or niche designs."
Though annual growth remains quite high, it has begun to taper off as the 13% growth rate in 2Q21 is far lower than the 55.9% growth in 1Q21 and 25.8% growth in 4Q20. "The market faces mixed signals as far as demand is concerned," said Neha Mahajan, senior research analyst with IDC's Devices and Displays Group. "With businesses opening back up, demand potential in the commercial segment appears promising. However, there are also early indicators of consumer demand slowing down as people shift spending priorities after nearly a year of aggressive PC buying."
Notes:
"The PC market's hot streak continued to drive heavy investments from the supply side including the entry of new vendors as well as additional spend from underdogs," said Jitesh Ubrani research manager for IDC's Mobile and Consumer Device Trackers. "And while the top 5 continue to drive volume, the smaller vendors have helped drive growth by offering unique features or niche designs."
- * IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide Traditional PC market when there is a difference of one tenth of one percent (0.1%) or less in the shipment shares among two or more vendors.
- Some IDC estimates prior to financial earnings reports. Data for all companies are reported for calendar periods.
- Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the company/brand under which they are sold.
- Traditional PCs include Desktops, Notebooks, and Workstations and do not include Tablets or x86 Servers. Detachable Tablets and Slate Tablets are part of the Personal Computing Device Tracker but are not addressed in this press release.
4 Comments on PC Demand Remained Strong in the Second Quarter Amid Early Signs That Market Conditions May Be Cooling, According to IDC
As more people return to in-person learning / working this fall, the curve will flatten.
Also, Now that you can congregate with hundreds of other people, there is going to be a sharp decline in people being forced to do it over Zoom; the Olympics only ditched fans in the stands because Japan sucks at vaccinations (but the US doesn't have that problem, , all MLB stadiums are now open 100% and places like Broadway are reopening in the next few months.)
www.newyorktheatreguide.com/news-features/upcoming-broadway-shows-opening-dates
theathletic.com/2469941/2021/07/05/mlb-fans-in-stadiums-tracking-attendance-news-for-all-30-teams-braves-full-capacity/
With all these distractions (both work-related, and sanity-maintenance-related), PC demand will plummet over the next twelve months.
Ive been playing Ultimate Frisbee pickup with dozens of other players for the last couple months, and got vaccinated back in April - I'm excited to get the rest of my entertainment options back soon with in-person concerts or a ball game.
Fact of the matter is: if you were on a "Work from Home" basis last year (because of the COVID19 pandemic), then you bought a webcam. It didn't matter that the bottom-tier Logitech webcams were $100+, you got one because you needed to continue having your team meetings to get your $1000+ paycheck next week. So $100+ for a (nominally) $20 webcam was absolutely a trade you were willing to make.
This extended out to plenty of other equipment: laptop prices, computer prices, and more. Video Games and other hobbies (lol Bicycles) were wrecked as vacation money / cruise money was redirected into these "COVID19 friendly" hobbies. The Hotel / Airline / Cruise Line industries suffered dramatically, but the forms of entertainment that were COVID19 friendly got extremely high demand and benefitted accordingly.
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Whats going on now is a few things:
1. Work from Home is in slight decline and supply has stabilized.
2. Cryptocoins are getting cracked down, so we're seeing a used-GPU supply glut in some areas of the world. Demand has fallen.
3. People are tired of sitting at home all year and playing video games. They're pushing for vacations and beach trips, amusement parks, (etc. etc.) again.