Despite soaring demands for PCs from employees looking to work from home, not to mention the thousands of consumers seeking beefy gaming PCs to keep themselves entertained, IDC says global PC shipments saw a nearly 10 per cent decline in the first quarter of 2020.
IDC’s latest PC tracker released this week says production in January was pretty much “on par” with past years, but February was a different story as China, the world’s largest supplier of PCs, faced significant delays.
Canada still managed to experience growth for the 15th consecutive quarter – IDC didn’t specify what that growth looked like – as enterprises and government offices scrambled to counteract possible shortages by scooping up what they could. That scramble, however, according to the research firm, has left the Canadian channel scarred.
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Forget optimistic scenarios and buckle up for a big drop in IT spending this year, says IDC
“Inventory levels in all areas of the channel have been decimated to meet this demand. As many retail locations and businesses close the need to replenish, inventory will fade as will the ability to receive goods through all levels of the supply chain and channel,” IDC’s report says.
The U.S. is experiencing its lowest quarterly shipment volume in more than a decade. Still, IDC is optimistic about a rebound in the notebook market, citing a potential growth of up to eight per cent.
In the battle of the brands, Lenovo managed to capture the number one spot for the quarter despite a 4.3 per cent decline in overall growth. HP came in second while suffering a nearly 14 per cent decline, and Dell Technologies came in at number three while posting a 1.1 per cent year-over-year growth thanks to “strong relationships with the supply chain.”
With almost all of its manufacturing based in China, Apple unsurprisingly got hit the hardest. Mac volumes decline by nearly 21 per cent year-over-year.
Gartner released a similar report this week detailing the PC market shipments and cited a 12.3 per cent global decline.
“The single most significant influencing factor for PC shipment decline was the coronavirus outbreak, which resulted in disruptions to both the supply and demand of PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner in a press release. “Following the first lockdown in China in late January, there was lower PC production volume in February that turned into logistics challenges.