COVID-19 drives 40% surge in New Zealand PC market

The latest IDC Asia-/Pacific Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker has revealed that New Zealand’s Traditional PC market has experienced a 39.7% year-on-year (YoY) growth in unit shipments in the second quarter of 2020, reaching nearly 217,000 units. COVID-19 had a sizeable impact on demand for PCs, with businesses preparing for lockdowns by purchasing notebooks to mobilise their workforce.

Shipments of commercial and consumer PC devices grew by 61.5% YoY and 13% YoY respectively in 2020Q2 for the New Zealand PC market. Liam Landon, Associate Market Analyst at IDC New Zealand, noted that the education market drove a large amount of growth, with the Ministry of Education distributing many notebooks to students. Notebooks saw 61.3% YoY growth, while desktops declined by -11.8% YoY.

“Notebooks saw most of the growth as businesses looked to make their fleets more mobile. This meant moving off desktop form factors where possible to allow employees the flexibility to work from the office or from home after lockdowns ended,” Landon said.

While consumer demand was strong, closures of physical retail stores during lockdown saw a shift towards online channels and limited growth. When lockdowns eased, pent up demand resulted in increased purchasing of devices for home use, with consumers seeking out notebooks over smartphones or tablets due to the increased productivity they offer, particularly with the move to online learning.

“This led to growth in the consumer market, and expectations of continued growth during 2020Q3. Whole families are indoors more frequently and are requiring more devices per person to sate increased device usage,” Landon said.

Branded gaming PCs saw similar growth due to the lockdowns, with people turning to gaming to fill time and consumers deciding to refresh their devices. PC monitors grew 61.9% YoY on the PC market. With many companies transitioning to working from home, employees took the opportunity to set up home offices to allow for greater work flexibility.

“Supply constrained both the PC and Monitor markets as supply chains struggled to keep up with demand. This was exacerbated by increased freight costs, particularly in air freight with fewer flights into New Zealand,” Landon said.

IDC predicts that New Zealand’s Traditional PC market will have another strong performance in 2020Q3, with a forecast growth of 7.9%. The consumer market is expected to remain buoyant, while the commercial market experiences slowdowns, particularly within SMBs who are sensitive to business uncertainty. Notebooks will also continue to drive growth as businesses look to create more mobile workforces.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Natalia Merzlyakova