What chip shortage? Now might actually be a great time to buy a new PC for work

Sales of computers have continued to grow in spite of widespread worries surrounding component shortages across the world, new figures have shown.

The latest PC shipment figures from IDC claim that the market in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region saw a growth of 6.5% in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the previous year.

The analyst firm says that 22.2m units were shipped during the period as businesses across the world began to re-open following the worst of the pandemic, with their employees embracing hybrid working to the full, necessitating the purchase of new devices.

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Hybrid working boom

Chinese giant Lenovo retook top position from HP, recording 5.71m units shipped to take a 25.8% market share during the quarter for a 5.5% year-on-year growth.

HP remained close behind, with its 5.38m shipments giving it 24.3% of the EMEA market, although this represented an 11.2% drop from the previous year. Dell (13.5% market share), Acer (9.6%) and ASUS (7.4%) completed the top five vendors across EMEA.

Overall, desktop shipments grew by 6.2% year-on-year, with IDC attributing the recovery to continued demand for gaming devices during lockdowns and for consumers looking to entertain themselves and socialize online with friends. 

Sales of notebook devices also grew 6.6% year-on-year, although this was a slight decline following four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.

"The supply issues concerning a range of crucial components continue to limit shipments in the Western European market," said Simon Thomas, research analyst for IDC Western European Personal Computing Devices. "This, combined with partial relaxing of lockdowns and a return to seasonality, has slowed the rapid growth seen in recent quarters."

The firm noted that the previous year's quarter was the first one propelled by Covid-related demand, so the 2021 performance was particularly encouraging. It added that it expects desktop sales to continue growing throughout the rest of 2021 as businesses look to buy new devices for those workers returning to the office.

Analysis: return to office spurs on PC market

It seems that reports on the death of the PC has been wildly exaggerated.

Over a year on from the initial surges in demand brought on by the pandemic and the move to widespread working from home, it's interesting to see that demand for desktop PCs in particular has remained strong.

With more and more workers now choosing a hybrid approach that combines office work and working from home, businesses of all sizes will need to make sure their employees have all the kit they need to do their jobs - no matter the expense.

• How to work from home: everything you need for remote working

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