Worldwide PC shipments totaled 64.8 million units in the 2nd quarter of 2020, a 2.8% increase from the second quarter of 2019. There was a significant decline in COVID – 19 related supply chain disruptions. The PC market has shown revival in the second quarter of 2020. The reason for the revival is that vendors restocked their channels mobile PC demand increased. In addition to this factor, business continuity for remote working, online education and consumers’ entertainment needs were the other reasons for this growth. This surge in Mobile PC demand will not prevail beyond 2020; since, shipments were mainly boosted by short-term business needs due to the impact of the pandemic. Microsoft also reported an increase in demand for PCs during its latest earnings back in April and huge overall jump in Windows usage.

Major PC manufacturers endured supply chain breakdowns during the first few months of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic grounded some manufacturing to a halt in the Asia-Pacific Region which produces key computer components. There is a massive demand for laptops as people adapted themselves to work from home. The Asia-Pacific market declined 8.1% year on year in the second quarter.
We have seen an increasing number of webinars during the pandemic period and companies are moving towards carrying out webinars for staff training, meetings, etc. It was predicted that the PC sales will decline during 2020; however, the pandemic and the remote working trend persuaded people and companies to purchase laptops.

Despite logistics issues early in the quarter, the cost and frequency of both air and sea freight inched closer to normal. This combined with the ramping up of PC production meant that retailers and other distributors around the world had ample supply and were ready to fulfill the surge in demand.

Apple sold 5.5 million PCs in the second quarter gaining more than 7% market share. Compared to mobile, the demand for PC India is far behind other countries. There is a tendency of buyers focusing on the segment under Rs 40,000 the most, but a change is expected in trends as new brands and technology become cheaper.