With the COVID-19 pandemic not showing signs of letting up, the work-from-home setup and hybrid workers push the personal computer sales to further growth. This is according to the latest International Data Corp. (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, which saw the global PC shipments grow 26.1% year over year to 91.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The same category of devices grew 13.1% year over year for the full year 2020 with the catalysts being work from home, remote learning, and restored consumer demand.

“Every segment of the supply chain was stretched to its limits as production once again lagged behind demand during the quarter,” said Jitesh Ubrani research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers. “Not only were PC makers and ODMs dealing with component and production capacity shortages, but logistics remained an issue as vendors were forced to resort to air freight, upping costs at the expense of reducing delivery times.”

IDC: PC shipments grew by 14.6% in Q3 2020

Traditional PC shipments continue to grow amid global economic slowdown

To put things into perspective, the last time the PC market saw annual growth of this magnitude was 2010 when the market grew 13.7%. A lot has changed in those 10 years, including six years of PC market decline, as well as a year of flat growth. The question now is how long this resurgence will last.

Lenovo leads the top 5 companies that shipped the most number of computers in the Q42020 with 25.2% market share up by 0.5% from Q42019. HP comes in second with 20.9%; Dell Technologies is at third with 17.2%, followed by Apple with 8%, and Acer at 7.2%.

“Demand is pushing the PC market forward and all signs indicate this surge still has a way to go,” said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “The obvious drivers for last year’s growth centered around work from home and remote learning needs, but the strength of the consumer market should not be overlooked. We continue to see gaming PCs and monitor sales at all-time highs and Chrome-based devices are expanding beyond education into the consumer market. In retrospect, the pandemic not only fueled PC market demand but also created opportunities that resulted in a market expansion.”