New Zealand PC market on the up, despite challenging year

New IDC New Zealand research shows demand for education devices and increased discretionary spending is driving growth in PC shipments.

In the third quarter of 2020, New Zealand's Traditional PC market experienced a 24.4% year-on-year (YoY) growth in unit shipments, reaching nearly 228,000 units, according to the latest IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.

The New Zealand PC market for 2020, Q3 saw shipments of both commercial and consumer PC devices grow by 16.5% YoY and 35.3% YoY respectively.

IDC New Zealand associate market analyst Liam Landon says, "After a strong commercial market in 2020Q2, IDC sees increasing demand in the consumer market driven by greater discretionary spend due to reduced spend on international travel while our borders are effectively closed. Strong demand due to students learning from home also fueled growth.

"Once lockdowns eased consumer demand began to drive growth in the market. On the other hand, supply remains a key constraint as global demand continues to exceed the availability of PCs."

Notebook shipments grew 40.2% YoY, while desktop shipments declined -20.3% YoY.

Landon says, "Notebooks continued to outperform desktops as businesses focus on mobility. However, IDC saw slight growth in the consumer desktop market due to demand for custom and branded gaming desktops.

"The same scenario applies for gaming notebooks as people look for more entertainment options while spending more time indoors than in previous years."

Commercial demand slowed after the highs of the second quarter of 2020, though the market maintained its growth rate.

Landon says, "The commercial market was helped by a strengthening public sector, as both education and government segments posted large YoY growth rates. The private sector began to lose momentum as businesses became more cautious about investments, due to increasing uncertainty about future economic strength."

When it comes to vendors, Lenovo shipped the most units in 2020Q3, delivering significant numbers of Chromebooks.

This enabled Lenovo to fulfill demand for education devices and combined well with robust Windows shipments to large business and government. HP followed in second place, with Acer Group in third position.

Shipments of PC monitors continued their growing trend, increasing 41.7% YoY. Many businesses continued to set up employee's home offices.

Benefits were also seen in the branded gaming monitor market, with a 192.7% growth YoY as gaming increases in popularity.

IDC predicts that New Zealand's Traditional PC market will reverse its current trend, declining by -6.1% in 2020Q4 due to an unfavourable YoY comparison.

The commercial market will continue to slow reaching a marginal decline, the analysts state. Finally, IDC expects to see a larger decline in the consumer market due to a large 2019, Q4.