2021 Mac shipments grew twice as fast as overall PC shipments

A new report shows that 2021 Mac shipments grew almost twice as fast as the PC market as a whole. Annual growth for Mac was 28.3%, against 14.6% for the global PC market.

The impressive result was of course strongly driven by sales of the M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro models, which went on sale in October …

Canalys says that the growth of the PC market as a whole was itself remarkable, given that it followed a COVID-19-driven bumper year in 2020.

The PC market ended 2021 with a bang, as fourth-quarter shipments exceeded 90 million for the second year in a row. The latest Canalys data shows that worldwide shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations grew 1% year on year to 92 million units over 91 million a year ago.

This pulled up total shipments for full-year 2021 to 341 million units, 15% higher than last year, 27% higher than 2019 and the largest shipment total since 2012. Furthermore, the industry saw strong revenue gains, with the total value of Q4 shipments estimated at US$70 billion, an annual increase of 11% over Q4 2020. For the full year, revenue passed US$250 billion in 2021 against US$220 billion in 2020, up 15%, highlighting the seismic transformation in the industry.

The two-year compound annual growth rate of 13% from 2019 emphasizes how dramatically the importance of PCs has grown since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notebooks and mobile workstations continued to lead the charge, with shipments of these devices growing 16% in 2021 to reach 275 million units. Desktop and desktop workstation shipments increased 7% in 2021 to reach 66 million units.

“2021 was a watershed year in the history of the PC market, with the PC’s place at the center of work, learning and leisure truly cemented,” said Ishan Dutt, Senior Analyst at Canalys. “For the market to post double-digit growth over an impressive 2020, despite the constant cloud of supply constraints, speaks volumes about how strong PC demand has been over the last 12 months.”

Dutt continued: “Taking a long-term view, the most important developments in 2021 were the large increases in PC penetration and usage rates. PCs are now in the hands of both young students and older family members, while ownership of two or more PCs per person has become more common in developed markets. Since the onset of the pandemic, a larger than normal proportion of PCs shipped have been new additions to the installed base rather than replacement devices, especially in areas such as education and remote work. This has set the stage for continued success for the PC industry as there is no turning back from how embedded they are in our day-to-day lives.”

Apple saw its annual Mac shipments grow from 22,574,000 in 2020 to 28,958,000 in 2021.

Photo: Rahul Chakraborty/Unsplash