Declining demand and challenging macro-economic conditions have caused IDC to further lower its forecast for the worldwide PC and tablet markets.

Shipments reached 86.7 million units in the third quarter of this year, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of growth.

According to a new forecast by IDC, global shipments of PCs are expected to grow 14.2% to 347 million units in 2021.

Chromebook and tablet vendors are posting record first-quarter shipment numbers, according to the latest data from Canalys.

Worldwide smartphone shipments could achieve a 5.5% growth rate this year - and PC shipment rates will also grow 18.2%.

“Robust consumer PC demand again drove sales, particularly in regions where governments maintain stay-at-home orders as the COVID-19 pandemic persists."

In the third quarter of 2020, New Zealand's Traditional PC market experienced a 24.4% year-on-year (YoY) growth in unit shipments, reaching nearly 228,000 units.

Chromebooks were the best performing client PC product in Q3, as shipments grew 122% to a total of 9.4 million – tablets are making a comeback.

The NZ PC market for 2Q20 saw shipments of commercial and consumer PC devices grow by 61.5% YoY and 13% YoY respectively.

"The strong demand driven by work-from-home as well as e-learning needs has surpassed previous expectations and has once again put the PC at the centre of consumers' tech portfolio."

“COVID-19 has given the PC industry a boost. Despite the progress that smartphones and tablets have made in recent years, the need for a high-performance mobile computing device has never been more pronounced."

Of the top five PC vendors, Apple was hit hardest in Q1 as its shipments fell by over 20% to 3.2 million units.

Manufacturing disruption, closed borders, remote working and learning, economic downturn - it might pay to get that purchase in now.

The long list of ICT markets that are being disrupted by the virus’ effect on manufacturing includes desktops, laptops, workstations and tablets.

Despite a surprise year of worldwide growth for the PC market, Asia Pacific saw its fifth straight quarter of decline in 4Q19.

With the first year of full-year growth since 2011, Lenovo, HP and Dell took the lion’s share with 65% of the global PC market.

Shipments of personal computing devices expected to see modest growth in 2019 followed by a continued decline through 2023.

Nearly one of every four PCs shipped during the quarter were from Lenovo or one of its subsidiaries as the company once again managed to hold the top position in the market.

"Unless the devices provide significant new utility, efficiency or experiences, users do not necessarily want to upgrade their phones."

The consumer market outperformed expectations, with some aggressive channel loading by PC vendors.

Year-over-year growth during the quarter reached 4.7%, which was notably higher than expected.

Australia will see a 3.1% increase in IT spending, while NZ should expect 2.3%. This is compared to global growth of just 0.6%.

New Zealand PC market declines on the back of high channel inventory, IDC New Zealand reports.

In the worldwide PC market, global shipments were above expectations, reaching 58.5 million during the last quarter.