PC Market Explodes Once Again, Registering Record Growth In Decades

By Ana Dascalescu

Posted on January 13, 2022

If there’s one place where the pandemic had a positive instead of a negative impact, it’s the PC market.

Due to the work from home shift, personal computers reversed a negative trend that spawned decades and had its first growth in 2020. Now, in 2021, the growth continues and reaches record levels: a nearly 15% increase since 2020 in PCs sold.

The global chipset shortage had a major impact on the growing popularity of PCs and, even though graphics cards are still overpriced and understocked, the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

According to the Fartner, nearly 340 million PCs were shipped in 2021, while IDC puts the number even higher, at 348.8 million.

“2021 has truly been a return to form for the PC. Consumer need for PCs in emerging markets and global commercial demand remained strong during the quarter with supply being a gating factor,” said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC.

This is the biggest number of PCs shipped since 2013 and experts don’t see it going down anytime soon.

“As a result, annual PC shipment volumes are not expected to decline to pre-pandemic levels for at least 2-3 years,” said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner.

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