The global PC market is forecast to grow significantly this year from last year, but at a slower pace than previously expected due to continued supply chain and logistics challenges, research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said last week.
Worldwide PC shipments are forecast to increase 14.2 percent on an annual basis to 347 million units this year, due to demand from the business and education sectors, IDC’s latest estimate showed on Tuesday last week.
IDC, which categorizes PCs as desktops, notebooks and workstations, said the new estimate was lower than its May forecast of an annual growth of 18 percent, due to component shortages and logistics issues, as well as declining demand for devices for working from home as more people return to the office amid rising COVID-19 vaccination rates.
Photo courtesy of Acer Inc
The tablet market is also expected to grow this year, but at a much slower pace of 3.4 percent, the Massachusetts-based research firm said in a report.
The forecast was echoed by PC vendors HP Inc and Dell Technologies Inc, as both on Thursday said that supply constraints continued to hold back shipments, while chipmaker Intel Corp last month said that a semiconductor shortage would likely persist throughout the year.
IDC mobile device tracker program vice president Ryan Reith said in a statement that “the PC and tablet markets are supply constrained and that demand is still there.”
The supply constraints are mainly related to panels and ICs, IDC said.
“The lengthening of the supply shortages combined with ongoing logistical issues are presenting the industry with some big challenges,” Reith said. “However, we believe the vast majority of PC demand is nonperishable, especially from the business and education sectors.”
Worldwide, 280 million units were shipped last year, up 11 percent from the previous year, driven by telecommuting and online education demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, IDC said.
From this year to 2025, PC shipments are expected to increase by a compound annual growth rate of 3.2 percent, led by laptop sales, while tablet shipments are predicted to decline by a compound annual growth rate of 1.5 percent over the same period, IDC said.
Although a level of normalcy in people’s daily lives would return after the pandemic is brought under control, and demand for videoconferencing would wane in advanced countries such as the US and European nations, demand for commercial laptops and desktops is expected to grow, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a research note on Aug. 18.
PC shipments are expected to slow from the second half of this year to the first half of next year as work-from-home demand subsides, Yuanta said.
Demand would accelerate again in the second half of next year due to the end of inventory destocking and Nvidia Corp’s biennial upgrades to its graphics processing units (GPUs), it said.
“We forecast notebook shipments to grow 13.1 percent year-on-year to 227 million units in 2021,” Yuanta said. “We estimate notebook shipments will be flat in 2022, as rising demand for commercial products and shipment growth for gaming products boosted by Nvidia’s biennial GPU overhaul should offset weakening work-from-home demand.”
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last