A market research company, Trendforce, shared a new report explaining the reason behind declining laptop sales. According to the research, a growing number of people are being vaccinated, which is resulting in a decline in sales.
The report shows that consumer demand for Chromebooks dropped by over 50% in July. The COVID-19 epidemic and the changing demand from businesses are expected to have an impact on notebook shipments for the rest of the year.
The demand for Chrome OS laptops is decreasing due to vaccination
According to Trendforce, the demand for Chrome OS-powered laptops over the previous year was mostly driven by those students who take online classes.
In the first half of 2021, Chromebook purchases were the predominant force behind overall laptop shipments. During the second half of the year, Chromebook sales plummeted by more than 50 percent. HP’s and Samsung’s overall laptop shipments are linked mainly to Chromebook sales. So, most likely, those companies will experience a 10 to 20 percent decline in their sales in the second half of the year when compared to the first half.
Despite this, the market for Chromebooks isn’t all bad, according to the report 36 million devices will be sold in 2021. Overall, the market research company predicts that laptop shipments will rise by 16.4 percent yearly through 2021, reaching 240 million devices.
What will be the situation in Q4?
At the most optimistic scenario, Trendforce expects Q4 shipments to match figures from Q3. However, one disadvantage Q4 has over Q3 is that the latter’s figures were aided by laptop companies rushing to get Q4 deliveries out early in order to avoid port congestion. Demand for commercial laptops is being fueled by employees’ return to offices in North America and Europe. However, the analyst isn’t sure if the business laptop trend will be as robust in Q4 as it was in Q3. Surely, the global component shortage is also affecting the laptop market heavily.
If commercial demand rises, as it has been doing lately, Dell should be pleased since its commercial laptops have a larger market share than “any other brand,” according to Trendforce. They predict commercial laptop shipments for Dell to increase by 20% from H1 to H2.
Laptops are expected to get an increase in shipments in the fourth quarter. Because customers might upgrade to take advantage of Intel’s next-generation CPUs or Windows 11, which is scheduled to debut the following week. However, final figures will be influenced by the world’s response to COVID-19.
