9.3 C
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

PC Shipments Plunge Most In Four Years As ‘Global Recession Begins’ 

Courtesy of ZeroHedge View original post here.

A new report from research firm Canalys shows global PC shipments plunged 8% YoY for the first quarter, a drop of 4.6 million units from 58.3 million in 1Q19 to 53.7 million in 1Q20. The decline in PC shipments was the steepest since the global economy slowed in early 2016 when the research firm recorded a 12% decline. 

We suspected that electronic manufacturers would take a sizeable hit from China shutdowns in 1Q20. Shortages of semiconductor parts and labor over the quarter didn’t help factories boost output. 

Canalys said the top vendor for the global PC market was Lenovo, who shipped 12.8 million units, down 4.4% over the same quarter last year. HP was second with 11.7 million units shipped, or down 13.8%, followed by Dell with 10.5 million units, an increase of 1.1%. Apple suffered the sharpest decline in unit sales, down 20% to 3.2 million over the quarter. 

Despite annual growth trends pointing down, Canalys research director Rushabh Dosh said there was some positive news as lockdowns across the world forced many people to work at home and upgrade PCs. 

“The PC industry has been boosted by the global COVID-19 lockdown, with products flying off the shelves throughout Q1,” Doshi said. “But PC makers started 2020 with a constrained supply of Intel processors, caused by a botched transition to 10nm nodes. This was exacerbated when factories in China were unable to reopen after the lunar new year holidays.”

Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt warns that, while the production constraints will probably ease in 2Q, PC demand in 1Q won’t be sustained for long, and the outlook on the year is negative: 

“As we move into Q2, the production constraints in China have eased. But the spike in PC demand seen in Q1 is not likely to be sustained and the rest of the year looks less positive. Few businesses will be spending on technology for their offices, while many homes will have been freshly equipped. 

A global recession has begun – businesses will go bankrupt with millions of newly unemployed. Even governments and large corporations will have to prioritize spending elsewhere. Many parts of the tech industry have benefited from the early part of this extraordinary lockdown period, but we expect to see a significant downturn in demand in Q2 2020. With factories now reopened and virtually up to full speed in China, PC vendors will face a challenge to manage supply chain and production correctly over the next three to six months.”

Canalys could be right about a global recession unfolding. We noted last week that the OECD warned its leading indicators suggested the global economy crashed.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Stay Connected

157,452FansLike
396,312FollowersFollow
2,280SubscribersSubscribe

Latest Articles

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x