HP Records Highest Gain in Market Share as Global PC Shipment Rises by 2.8% in Q2 2020

PC shipment across the globe increased in the second quarter of 2020 with significant growth in numbers visible in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). This is according to the global PC shipment report by Gartner, Inc. The Q2 growth is a welcome change from the drop in global shipments recorded in the Q1 of 2020.

Year-on-Year analysis of global PC shipment

There was a total shipment of 64,808 PCs worldwide in Q2 2020. 63,047 PCs were shipped for the same quarter in 2019. This represents a year-on-year increase of 2.8%.

It is interesting to note that while the COVID-19 was hugely responsible for the decline in shipment in Q1 2020, it is also responsible for the spike in PC demand for Q2 2020 demand.

Constraints brought by the virus has necessitated online learning, remote working, and increasing dependence on tech for needs such as entertainment and communication. This has resulted in more demand for mobile and PC.

Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner explained that “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.”

HP Catching Up with Lenovo in Global Market Share

HP is quickly catching up with Lenovo in the number of PC’s shipped. While Lenovo shipped 16,197,000 PC’s in the quarter in review, HP wasn’t far behind with a shipment of 16,165,000. This gives HP a 24.9% market share, nearly the same with Lenovo’s 25%.

In Q1 2020, HP shipped 1.5 million less PC’s than Lenovo and enjoyed only 21.5% of market share to Lenovo’s 24.4%. But HP has closed the gap in the space of a quarter.

Lenovo shipped 15.5 million laptops in Q2 2019. With 16.1 million shipped in Q2 2020, there’s a growth of 4.2% from its shipment volume last year. With 16.1 million PCs shipped in Q2 2020, HP recorded a 17% increase from the 13.8 million PCs that were shipped in the same quarter of 2019.

Other PCs that had significant demand are Dell with 16.4% market share, Apple with 6.7%, Acer with 6.2% and Asus with 5.5%.

In the first quarter, Gartner predicted that demand for mobile PC would rise and supply would fall due to the lockdown situation in many regions of the world. While the demand has risen, there has also been a corresponding increase in vendor supply leading to the rise in the quantity of global shipment.

Summary

The growth in demand for PCs is not expected to continue beyond 2020 however. This is due to the short-term nature of the factors that contributed to its uptick. PC shipment to the EMEA region increased by 20% in the second quarter.

Suggested read: Global PC Shipment Dropped 12.3% in Q1 of 2020 Due to Supply Disruption Caused by COVID-19

While supply appears to be on the rise with the opening up of the global economy after Covid-19 shutdown, it will be interesting if the market continues the newest trend of remote work, remote learning and remote recreation. Otherwise, shipment may rise but won’t necessarily translate to sales.