Notebook PC shipments grew 81% in Q1 of 2021

The big numbers cap a year where demand for personal devices skyrocketed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where millions were forced to work and school from home.

Strategy Analytics attributed the Q1 increase to teleworking, e-learning and gaming from home, noting that the numbers may continue to grow considering the widely covered laptop shortages that have plagued schools and other organizations for months.

Chirag Upadhyay, and industry analyst, told Strategy Analytics that Chromebooks continued to dominate the education sector as primary education sector demand is still high in developed markets.

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"The SMB market is also responding well to the cost competitiveness and manageability of the Chrome ecosystem, giving the OS a growing share of shipments in this segment and giving vendors a crucial chance to slowly raise prices and add features for the SMB/commercial world," Upadhyay added.

A report from researcher IDC last month showed similar increases in laptop demand for Q1 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Shipments in the region reportedly increased 44% compared to the same stretch last year.

The PC market is currently dominated by HP and Lenovo, followed by Dell, Acer and Asus, while other companies like Microsoft, Huawei and Samsung have been battling over the notebook market.