However, even though annual growth remains high, buying trends have begun to taper off as the 13% growth rate in Q2 2021 is significantly lower than the 55.9% growth seen last quarter. The pandemic spurred massive growth in PC buying across vendors through 2020 and 2021, but analysts are predicting year-on-year declines in shipments as spending priorities begin to shift. “The market faces mixed signals as far as demand is concerned,” said Neha Mahajan, senior research analyst with IDC’s Devices and Displays Group. “With businesses opening back up, demand potential in the commercial segment appears promising. However, there are also early indicators of consumer demand slowing down as people shift spending priorities after nearly a year of aggressive PC buying.” IDC defines the PC market as desktops, notebooks (including Chromebooks) and workstations but not tablets or x86 Servers. The top 3 vendors remain unchanged from a year ago, with Lenovo taking the No. 1 spot with a 25.2% share of the PC market, according to IDC. HP and Dell were No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, with Apple and Acer rounding out the top five.  Here’s the global standings via IDC, broken down by Q2 2021 shipments:  Gartner also released its second quarter 2021 PC vendor results on Monday. Gartner’s data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads.  By Gartner’s tally, PC shipments totaled 71.6 million units in Q2, a mere 4.6% increase from the same quarter a year ago. Gartner and IDC are in agreement that PC growth in 2021 will be tempered by the ongoing semiconductor shortage.

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