RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Despite supply chain issues with demand for home PCs continuing to be driven by COVID, the world’s PC market produced the biggest sales in a decade. However, Lenovo, the market leader, took a hit in the fourth quarter.

So report tech research firms Gartner and IDC in their year-end reports for 2021.

Gartner reports that shipments for the year increased nearly 10% from 2020 to nearly 340 million units – the biggest total since 2012.

But the market may be cooling and shipments dropped in the fourth quarter to 88.4 million machines – still, a 1% improvement year-over-year.

“[T]he pandemic revived the PC industry,” Gartner says, but the firm “expects PC demand to slow for at least the next two years, but annual shipment volumes are not expected to decline to pre-pandemic levels in that period.”

Then there is the supply chain problem.

“A sharp decline in the U.S. PC market, caused by ongoing supply chain issues and the collapse in demand for Chromebooks, drove this quarter’s slowdown,” said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner. “This likely signifies the end of the massive and unexpected growth in PC demand triggered by the pandemic.

“However, the fourth quarter’s decline only slightly tempered the PC market’s growth in 2021, which saw the highest shipment volume since 2013. During the pandemic, shipment growth has been supported by an average selling price (ASP) hike, resulting in higher revenues and a healthier market overall. As a result, annual PC shipment volumes are not expected to decline to pre-pandemic levels for at least 2-3 years.”

IDC reports that Lenovo, which operates dual headquarters in the Triangle and Beijing, remains the sales leader with 21.7 million machines shipped in the fourth quarter, but that’s a drop of nearly 3 million year-over-year.

As a result, its marketshare fell to 24.6% from 26.5%.

HP remains second at a 21.1% share followed by Dell at 19.5% and Apple at 7.7%. Both Dell and Apple grew marketshare, IDC notes.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q21 (Thousands of Units)

Company 4Q21 Shipments 4Q21 Market Share (%) 4Q20 Shipments 4Q20 Market Share (%) 4Q21-4Q20 Growth (%)
Lenovo 21,701 24.6 24,623 26.5 -11.9
HP Inc. 18,645 21.1 19,455 20.9 -4.2
Dell 17,196 19.5 15,944 17.1 7.9
Apple 6,846 7.7 6,447 6.9 6.2
Acer Group 6,189 7.0 6,798 7.3 -9.0
ASUS 6,102 6.9 5,359 5.8 13.9
Others 11,714 13.3 14,450 15.5 -18.9
Total 88,392 100.0 93,076 100.0 -5.0

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs, ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface) and Chromebooks, but not iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.
Source: Gartner (January 2022)

About Lenovo, Gartner concludes:

“Lenovo’s worldwide PC shipments fell nearly 12% quartering the fourth quarter of 2021, the first period of year-over-year decline for the company since the first quarter of 2020. This decline was due to the slowed U.S. market, weak Chromebook demand and supply chain issues, which impeded Lenovo’s ability to supply PCs to enterprise customers.”

In the U.S., Dell took over the marketshare lead from HP with Lenovo a distant third.

Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q21 (Thousands of Units)

Company 4Q21 Shipments 4Q21 Market Share (%) 4Q20 Shipments 4Q20 Market Share (%) 4Q21-4Q20 Growth (%)
Dell 5,892 28.5 6,769 24.8 -13.0
HP Inc. 5,357 25.9 8,221 30.2 -34.8
Lenovo 3,097 15.0 4,820 17.7 -35.8
Apple 2,689 13.0 2,520 9.2 6.7
Acer Group 1,125 5.4 1,874 6.9 -40.0
ASUS 906 4.4 961 3.5 -5.8
Others 1,584 7.7 2,084 7.6 -24.0
Total 20,649 100.0 27,249 100.0 -24.2

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs, ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface) and Chromebooks, but not iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.
 Source: Gartner (January 2022)

2021 overview

For the year, Lenovo slightly increased its marketshare lead to 24.7% from 24.6% year-over-year. HP and Dell made up little ground, Gartner notes.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2021 (Thousands of Units)

Company 2021 Shipments 2021 Market Share (%) 2020 Shipments 2020 Market Share (%) 2021-2020 Growth (%)
Lenovo 84,017 24.7 76,113 24.6 10.4
HP Inc. 74,180 21.8 68,181 22.1 8.8
Dell 59,681 17.6 50,736 16.4 17.6
Apple 25,983 7.6 22,008 7.1 18.1
Acer Group 24,335 7.2 22,460 7.3 8.3
ASUS 21,656 6.4 17,849 5.8 21.3
Others 49,917 14.7 51,731 16.7 -3.5
Total 339,769 100.0 309,079 100.0 9.9

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs, ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface) and Chromebooks, but not iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.
Source: Gartner (January 2022)

The IDC numbers

IDC’s numbers differed somewhat as they usually do. But Lenovo remains the top seller.

IDC reports shipments climbed to nearly 93 million in the fourth quarter, up 1% year-over-year. Shipments reached nearly 350 million for all 2021, up almost 15% year-over-year.

This represents the highest level of shipments the PC market has seen since 2012,” IDC notes.

“2021 has truly been a return to form for the PC,” explains  Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile and Consumer Device Trackers. “Consumer need for PCs in emerging markets and global commercial demand remained strong during the quarter with supply being a gating factor. While consumer and educational demand has tapered in some developed markets, we continue to believe the overall PC market has reset at a much higher level than before the pandemic.”

Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Traditional PC Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q4 2021 (Preliminary results, shipments are in thousands of units)
Company 4Q21 Shipments 4Q21 Market Share 4Q20 Shipments 4Q20 Market Share 4Q21/4Q20 Growth
1. Lenovo 21,701 23.4% 22,430 24.4% -3.3%
2. HP Inc. 18,645 20.1% 19,266 21.0% -3.2%
3. Dell Technologies 17,197 18.6% 15,797 17.2% 8.9%
4. Apple 7,602 8.2% 7,001 7.6% 8.6%
5T. ASUS* 6,105 6.6% 5,427 5.9% 12.5%
5T. Acer Group* 6,036 6.5% 6,538 7.1% -7.7%
Others 15,367 16.6% 15,285 16.7% 0.5%
Total 92,653 100.0% 91,744 100.0% 1.0%
Source: IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, January 12, 2022

Worldwide numbers for the year:

Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Traditional PC Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, 2021 (Preliminary results, shipments are in thousands of units)
Company 2021 Shipments 2021 Market Share 2020 Shipments 2020 Market Share 2021/2020 Growth
1. Lenovo 81,935 23.5% 71,832 23.6% 14.1%
2. HP Inc. 74,104 21.2% 67,782 22.3% 9.3%
3. Dell Technologies 59,303 17.0% 50,297 16.6% 17.9%
4. Apple 27,775 8.0% 22,754 7.5% 22.1%
5. Acer Group 23,906 6.9% 20,977 6.9% 14.0%
Others 81,777 23.4% 70,218 23.1% 16.5%
Total 348,800 100.0% 303,860 100.0% 14.8%
Source: IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, January 12, 2022