BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

PC Sales Surge During Coronavirus Crisis - And HP’s The Big Winner

Following
This article is more than 3 years old.

The PC market has been one of the big beneficiaries of the Coronavirus crisis, with overall PC sales climbing by 2.8% year-on-year.

Gartner’s preliminary PC sales results for the second quarter of 2020 show huge gains for several of the leading PC makers, not least HP, who saw sales increase by 17.1% year-on-year to push the company within a whisker of reclaiming its spot as the world’s biggest maker. Lenovo clings on to that title, shipping 16.197m units in the quarter to HP’s 16.165m.

HP was particularly strong in its U.S. home market, where it saw sales increase by 20.1% year-on-year, underlining its position as the country’s biggest PC maker.

Fifth and sixth placed vendors Acer and Asus also made huge gains, increasing year-on-year global sales by 23.6% and 21.4% respectively, although both come from much lower bases than HP.

Apple saw sales increase by a modest 5.1%, while Dell was the only one of the big six PC vendors not to see any increase at all, with sales falling back slightly by 0.3%. Gartner attributed this to a sharp decline in Dell’s desktop PC business, eliminating the double-digit gains it made in laptops.

Gartner puts the sales surge down to the short-term boost provided by the Coronavirus lockdowns and companies suddenly being forced to supply laptops to homebound workers. “Mobile PC growth was particularly strong, driven by several factors including business continuity for remote working, online education and consumers’ entertainment needs,” said Mikalo Kitagawa, research director at Gartner.

However, he warned that the surge in sales isn’t likely to last long. “This uptick in mobile PC demand will not continue beyond 2020, as shipments were mainly boosted by short-term business needs due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website