Global PC Shipments Up by 45 Percent, Chip Crisis To Persist Till 2nd Half Of 2021: Report

ODMs are still facing shortages of key components like power management IC, display driver IC (with display panel) and CPUs

Global PC shipments witnessed a 45 percent year-on-year growth reaching up to 75.6 million units in the first quarter of 2021 following a surge in demand. However, the ongoing global chip crunch will continue to affect the shipment schedules of PC brands and ODMs (original design manufacturers) in the second half this year, as per a report by Counterpoint Research.

Lenovo grabbed the leading spot with a 24 percent market share, followed by HP at 23 percent and Dell at 17 percent. 

The overall momentum of the PC market was mainly driven by the growth in gaming notebooks and surging demand from the work-from-home and study-from-home segments, which stimulated Chromebook sales, said the research firm. 

“In Q2 2021, PC shipments will remain resilient with the pent-up demand from Q1 2021 extending to this quarter. We believe the top six vendors will continue to dominate the market with over 85 per cent share,” said William Li, Research Analyst in Semiconductor and Components team.

Stepping into H2 2021, the momentum from the previous half will continue and reach a peak with back-to-school (some will be virtual classes) demand as well as the pent-up demand from H1 2021, he added. 

Counterpoint added that ODMs are still facing shortages of key components like power management IC, display driver IC (with display panel) and CPUs. 

“We have found a 20 per cent-30 per cent gap between orders (end-demand) and actual shipments (supply), largely owing to the component shortage beginning H2 2020,” Li added.

PMIC and DDIC have faced the biggest gaps in the PC segment, with the lead time almost two times more than the normal before the COVID-19 outbreak. For PC CPUs, it was gently improving in late H1 in several sub-segment products, he added. 

Some vendors also said the demand for audio codec IC and LAN chips remained unsatisfied and would continue to remain so in the second half of this year.

“Since we do not see any meaningful foundry capacity expansion in H2 2021, it is unlikely that the lead time for key IC components would recover from the current status,” Li added.

PC brands and ODMs cannot fully solve the shortage issue and clear the orders backlog and the report expects the demand-supply gap to gradually normalise in late H1 2022.