Coronavirus lockdown hits computer manufacturers, report says PC shipments saw a drop of 12.3% globally in 2020 Q1

Coronavirus has not only affected human health but is also dealing a heavy blow to the world economy. The deadly virus has brought almost all the economic activity to a halt. Research firm Gartner has said that the PC shipments have seen a decline of 12.3 percent globally in the first quarter due to coronavirus outbreak. [caption id=“attachment_6169191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] A report by the company says that the PC market has registered its sharpest decline since 2013, after three consecutive quarters of growth. “The single most significant influencing factor for PC shipment decline was the coronavirus outbreak, which resulted in disruptions to both the supply and demand of PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner. She said that PC production volume in February declined, following the first lockdown in China in late January, adding that it turned into logistics challenges. She asserted that once other countries started adopting lockdown, PC demand for remote workers and online classrooms increased, but due to lower productions manufacturers could not keep up with it. The report says that the market share of three top vendors remained unchanged from the previous quarter, despite the impact of novel coronavirus. Lenovo remained at the top spot in the global PC market, but its shipments plunged 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Its sales in Asia Pacific dipped 22.6 per cent year over year. HP also had a challenging first quarter as its PC shipments fell 12.1 per cent, after three consecutive quarters of growth. On the other hand, Dell was the only company that registered a growth of 2.2 per cent year over year.