The traditional PC market grew 14.6% in the third quarter on the heels of work- and learn- from-home trends due to COVID-19, according to analyst firm IDC.
The increase to 81 million shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations came after a 13.4% increase in the second quarter, compared to a year earlier, IDC said.
IDC expects the fourth quarter will also be strong, said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC, via email.
Even with the uptick, the third quarter might have been stronger still but there were shortages on the components like processors and panels, IDC said. The industry segment entered the third quarter with a sizeable backlog of unfulfilled orders and will likely end the quarter in the same position. The backlog is even expected to last into 2021.
Bad planning on the part of component suppliers was to blame, rather than any technical glitch. IDC Research Vice President called it a “shortfall of business planning.”
Ubrani said the laptop market would have soared higher in the third quarter if the market wasn’t hampered by component shortages. “Market appetite was yet unsatiated,” he said. “PC makers have certainly put in large orders though they haven’t been fulfilled by the
Lenovo finished the third quarter with the largest global market share at 24.4%, compared to HP at 23.7%, then Dell at 17%, Apple at 7% and Acer at 6.6%.
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