Lenovo and HP share top sales spot.

 

Following a downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global demand for mobile personal computers has bounced back with a 2.8 per cent increase in units sold in the second quarter of 2020.

 

“The second quarter of 2020 represented a short-term recovery for the worldwide PC market, led by exceptionally strong growth in EMEA,” Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner, said. 

 

“After the PC supply chain was severely disrupted in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the growth this quarter was due to distributors and retail channels restocking their supplies back to near-normal levels.

 

“Additionally, mobile PC growth was particularly strong, driven by several factors including business continuity for remote working, online education and consumers’ entertainment needs. However, 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,” he said.

 

In the second quarter of 2020, Lenovo and HP shared the number one position, followed by Dell, Apple, Acer and Asus.

 

The Asia/Pacific market declined 8.1 per cent year over year in the second quarter. While the consumer PC market was strong, driven by both replacement and first-time purchases to address stay at home requirements, the business market was weak, reflecting demand challenges and budget constraints in certain verticals, such as government and education. 

 

New game for global IT market

 

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total US$3.5 trillion in 2020, a decline of 7.3 per cent from 2019, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.

 

While the global economy is expected to witness a ‘swoosh’ recovery, IT spending will experience more of a ‘swoop’ recovery.

 

“Overall IT spending is still expected to sharply decline in 2020 but will recover in a faster and smoother manner than the economy,” John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner, said. “Still, enterprises cannot return to previous processes that are now rendered outdated due to the disruption of their primary revenue stream during the pandemic.

 

“From movie theatres to banks, COVID-19 is forcing all organisations to get creative and stay afloat without exclusively offering physical experiences. Specifically, CIOs with less immediate cash on hand should plan on becoming more digital than they had originally anticipated at the start of 2020,” he said.