The big picture: A surge in remote working and learning due to shelter-in-place measures from Covid-19 has resulted in increased demand for new PCs around the globe. That'd normally be welcome news for PC makers except in this instance, they were already behind the eight ball due to Intel's lingering CPU shortage.
According to a recent report from research firm Canalys, vendors shipped 53.7 million desktops, notebooks and workstations globally in Q1 2020 - an eight percent drop compared to the same period a year earlier. It was the largest decline in PC shipments since Q1 2016.
Lenovo, HP and Dell led the industry with shipments of 12.8 million, 11.7 million and 10.5 million systems, respectively. Among the top five vendors, Apple was hit hardest as its shipment volume slid 21 percent year over year.
Of course, Intel's CPU shortage isn't the only factor in play here. Many factories in China were unable to reopen after the Lunar New Year due to lockdown orders, hampering production.
Ishan Dutt, an analyst with Canalys, said that as we move into Q2, production constraints in China have eased but the spike in PC demand we saw in Q1 is not likely to be sustained. Many homes will have been freshly equipped and few businesses will be spending heavily on technology during a global recession.
Masthead credit: Oleksiy Mark