Research firm International Data Corp. said today that demand boosted by ongoing COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in Europe, Middle East and Africa will help drive double-digit growth in the region’s personal computer market, ending years of declining sales.

The need to continue working and studying from home during the coronavirus pandemic has created renewed demand for PCs, IDC said.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged this year, the PC market had endured a years-long decline as most people switched to using smartphones for their day-to-day computing needs. The rise of the smartphone made buying a replacement PC less attractive for business users and consumers alike, and sales fell steadily as a result.

But COVID-19 has led to a sharp increase in demand as people realize that PCs can still useful for getting work done at home and playing games or watching movies.

Now, IDC said, it’s expecting shipments of traditional PCs, which includes desktops, notebooks and workstations, in EMEA will top 82.1 million this year, up 12.7% from the previous year. And that demand is expected to continue through until the first half of 2021 at least.

IDC said the Western European commercial PC market will return to growth with a 7.1% increase in sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 amid continued lockdowns. The Western European consumer market, meanwhile, is expected to grow as much as 28% year-over-year, recording its third straight quarter of strong growth.

“The second wave of the pandemic, allied with businesses still shifting to an indefinite remote working environment, will continue to erode demand for stationary devices,” Liam Hall, senior research analyst for IDC Western Europe Personal Computing, said in a statement. “The ongoing rollout of laptops across education – as schools and colleges wrestle with remote learning – is also likely to boost sales.”

Although the bulk of PC sales are made up of notebooks, IDC said that desktop sales will also get a boost thanks to fresh demand from video gamers that require more powerful machines. Desktops provide by far the best specification-to-cost ratio, IDC said.

“Notebooks will remain the preferred form factor and will continue to experience exceptional growth driven by the need to equip every household member with a device for remote learning, as well as entertainment, during the ongoing lockdown periods,” the report added.

PC makers had better make the most of this purple patch, though. IDC warned that the industry has few long-term growth prospects since people won’t stay locked in their homes forever. With several COVID-19 vaccines showing promising early test results, it’s expected that PC sales will be significantly lower by 2024, with desktops and notebooks expected to see the biggest declines.

Photo: Skitterphoto/pixabay