Demand in consumer and education keeps EMEA PC market at double-digit growth, says IDC

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) traditional PC market that covers products including desktops, notebooks, and workstations, posted strong on-year growth of 16.6% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and totaled 24.1 million units, according to IDC.

The continued impact of the COVID-19 and subsequent high demand for traditional PC shipments resulted in strong on-year growths for consumer models at 21.3% and commercial models at 13.6%.

The Western European PC market posted the strongest results of the regions in EMEA, growing 20% on year. Despite the expected weak result of desktops, which slipped 25% on year, the market was heavily offset by the continued strong performance of notebooks, which reached 12.9 million units and grew 39.4% on year.

"The exceptional notebook performance can once again be attributed to the massive demand in consumer and education," said Liam Hall, senior research analyst for IDC Western European Personal Computing Devices. "Extended lockdowns and increased restrictions have translated into an even stronger urgency for devices that support entertainment and remote learning, drilling home the necessity of one device per-person rather than per-household."

"Market growth could have been even greater, but supply constraints, particularly on panel and entry-level CPUs, created bottlenecks that meant the full demand could not be satiated."

Consumer in Western Europe saw an increase of 32.1% on year in fourth-quarter 2020 notebook shipments, reaching 6.9 million units. On top of the strong notebook performance, desktop also enjoyed positive results, growing 12.4% on year. Gaming continued to be an area of growth as consumers still look for ways to entertain themselves and socialize with friends during lockdowns. Beyond education, the commercial market was less buoyant, although it still grew 12.2% on year to reach 9.2 million units.

Despite the Russian PC market underperforming and contracting by 2.8% on year, the overall PC market in the CEE region grew by 14.3% on year, in line with the latest forecast. The ongoing education deals across a few countries have certainly helped to maintain growth in the commercial space, which was recorded at 21.4% on year and continuously fueled by work from home needs, while consumer increased 9% on year.

"Demand for notebooks remains the market driver with quarter-on-quarter backlogs coupled with ongoing lockdowns," said Nikolina Jurisic, senior research manager IDC Europe. "The MEA region reported good overall growth driven exclusively by the commercial segments at 12.4% on year compared to consumer ones declining by 2.8% on year."

Vendor highlights

Traditional PC market consolidation slowed again, with the top-5 vendors' combined share dipping in the fourth quarter of 2020. The top-5 players accounted for 81.1% of total market volumes, compared with 82.4% in the same quarter a year ago.

Lenovo (including Fujitsu) now leads the PC market in EMEA, holding 25.7% market share, up 0.2pp on year. The vendors' shipments grew 17.4% on year driven by a strong double-digit performance in both segments.

HP dropped to second position, with 23.2% market share, down 5.1pp on year. Mid-single digit declines in both segments led to a drop in ranking. A comparatively weak notebook performance stemming from supply constraints further contributed to the vendor's decline in ranking.

Dell maintained third position in the PC market in EMEA with 14.7% market share, up 0.9pp on year. The vendor enjoyed overall growth of 23.8% driven by double-digit growth in the commercial segment.

Acer climbed to fourth position from fifth with 9.4% market share, up 1.8pp on year. The vendor's strong presence in the consumer and education markets heavily supported its healthy notebook growth.

Asustek dropped in ranking to fifth place from fourth with 8.1% market share in EMEA, up 1pp on year. A weaker performance compared to its closest competitor in the consumer segment caused a drop in ranking despite a strong performance overall in both segment groups.

Source: IDC, compiled by Digitimes, January 2021