Thanks to work from home, this has been the best start to any new year for PC shipments since 2000

• The first three months of the year, January to March, were witness to a huge jump in PC shipment numbers over last year.
• Research firm Gartner says the 32% growth seen during these months is the highest year-on-year spike since 2000.
• Pandemic has increased the demand for home and remote working culture, giving a boost to the overall demand.

After a great 2020 in terms of growth numbers, the personal computer (PC) market in 2021 is said to have clocked its highest ever growth in the months from January to March (year-on-year) in two decades. The traditional PCs market— which includes laptops as well as PCs — has seen a sudden but unsurprising boom during the pandemic. The growth is commendable as the sector has also been facing a global shortage of semiconductor chips affecting shipment volumes.

As per research firm Gartner, PC shipments are up by 32% in the first quarter of 2021 over last year. The total number of PCs shipped increased to 69,869.5 units from 52,928.3 in the same period last year. IDC has shared an even bigger number estimating the year-on-year growth to be 55%.

Both the research firms call this growth unusual as the PC market has been stagnant for years and was expected to go down. As per IDC’s data, in Q1 2021, the total PC shipment number was 83,981 over 54,123 units in the first three months of 2020.

Gartner notes that it's the fastest growth trajectory it has observed in the PC market ever since it started to operate in 2000, and IDC says that the drop in shipment from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021 is the least it has seen since 2012.

The numbers shared by Gartner do not include iPads, Chromebooks and similar. However, the category grew by triple digits in the first quarter compared to last year. Had it been added to the overall PC market, the growth would have been 47% year-over-year.

The pandemic led to the rise in demand but also supply shortage

PC shipments went up in 2020, thanks to the increase in demand for work from home and remote working due to the coronavirus pandemic. The rise in demand during 2020 hinted at an upward trend in the PC market. The PC market was among the few that benefited from the pandemic when the whole world was struggling.

Research firm Canalys believes that the growth in Q1 2021 is also because of continued demand, which was not being met due to the shortage of semiconductor chips. In fact, both IDC and Gartner also believe that the growth could have been even higher if the market wasn't facing a silicon shortage.

The chip shortage isn't limited to PCs. We've seen a shortage of stocks for gaming consoles, PC components and recent reports suggest even the new MacBooks and iPads production may delay due to the shortage. While the demand for PCs may increase in the coming months, the global chip shortage might benefit the upcoming quarters as and when the shipment gets on track. While analysts predict a good first half for the PC market in 2021, it remains to be seen how it goes amid the ongoing shortage of chips.

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