As most countries in the world are moving into an endemic phase, allowing most people to return to the office and to school, demand for the personal computer (PC) industry is back as bleak as the era before Covid-19.
Worldwide PC demand and shipments saw a sharp decline especially in the first quarter of 2022, with a decline of 7.3% on an annual basis at 77.5 million units for global PC shipments.
The situation is slightly different when compared to 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit the world.
During 2020, International Data Corp (IDC) reported PC sales (including laptops) received an impressive jump of 13% or 302 million units over the previous year.
Back then, the world’s computer giants benefited from a spike in their shares, where HP reached 20%, Dell rose 55%and Apple jumped 67%.
According to IDC Vice President Ryan Reith, the main driver of the increase in 2020 is due to the factors of work from home (work from home) and distance learning (remote learning).
Clearly, there is also an increase in demand for gaming PCs and monitors including Chrome -based devices that are starting to grow from the education sector to other consumer markets.
Then the following year in 2021, PC sales sprouted up to 15% at once reaching its highest level since 2012 before it declined slowly.
However, the landscape is changing in 2022 with the ICD predicting a 5.1% decline in 80.5 million PC delivery units worldwide.
In fact, Canalys, a technology market analyst also reported a 3% drop in PC shipments for the first quarter of 2022 even though it estimates total PC revenue is still increasing.
A factor that poses a challenge to the decline of other PCs is the problem of a lack of chip supply that continues to haunt spare parts suppliers even while pandemics are still raging.
In addition, not to forget the issue of sanctions on Russia following the Moscow government's actions in attacking Ukriane also exacerbated the impact of the decline on PC sales.
Even with the Covid-19 situation returning to violence in Shanghai, leading to the city being ordered to undergo a curfew, it indirectly sheds some light on the PC industry.
