Gartner's preliminary statistics showed that worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments totaled 88.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2021, a decrease of 5% from the fourth quarter of 2020. It was the first decline in the PC market after six consecutive quarters of growth. Full-year PC shipments in 2021 will be 339.8 million units, an increase of 9.9% from 2020.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the top three manufacturers in the global PC market remained unchanged, and Lenovo's shipments continued to remain the first. However, Lenovo's global PC shipments fell by nearly 12% in the fourth quarter of 2021, the first decline for Lenovo since the first quarter of 2020.
According to Gartner, the slowdown in the U.S. market, weak Chromebook demand, and supply chain issues, which have hindered Lenovo's ability to supply PCs to enterprise customers, contributed to the decline. The same reason led to a 4% decline for HP, although strong growth in the Asia-Pacific market slowed the trend for HP.
Meanwhile, Dell gained market share after five consecutive quarters of growth. In particular, Dell shipped more than 17 million units for the first time, driven by strong performance in Latin America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.
Gartner expects PC demand to taper over at least the next two years, but annual shipments during that period won't drop to pre-pandemic levels.
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