The global PC market is expected to keep growing this year, with an expected rise of 18.1 per cent year-on-year, according to research firm IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.
This is despite a semiconductor shortage which is tipped to last until 2022.
IDC forecast global PC shipments to hit over 357 million units by the end of 2021 – but warn that this figure will decline by 2.9 per cent in 2022.
“Longer term, the consumer refresh cycle is also expected to be pulled in slightly as the pandemic has raised the profile of PCs and consumers continue to spend more time and dollars on PC gaming and content consumption,” Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said.
Mario Morales, program vice president, semiconductors added: “Mature technology nodes account for more than 50 per cent of all the capacity in the semiconductor industry and suppliers are only gradually increasing capacity as they prioritise on the largest segments of their business and invest more on mainstream and leading-edge nodes.
“IDC expects that shortages will begin to ease by the end of Q3 this year. A broader upstream balance of the industry is not expected until the first half of 2022.”