Mac shipments outpaced overall PC growth in the second quarter of 2020

2019 MacBook Air Source: Apple

What you need to know

Overall PC shipment grew globally by 2.8% in Q2 of 2020.
Mac shipments grew by 5.1%.
In the United States, Mac shipments grew by 4.3%.

The PC market saw a bump in overall growth in the second quarter of 2020 due to strong mobile demand as well as supply chains recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner, says that the overall growth of the market in the second quarter was due to retailers restocking units as well as the increased demand from businesses and schools working and learning from home.

"The second quarter of 2020 represented a short-term recovery for the worldwide PC market, led by exceptionally strong growth in EMEA ... After the PC supply chain was severely disrupted in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the growth this quarter was due to distributors and retail channels restocking their supplies back to near-normal levels ... Additionally, mobile PC growth was particularly strong, driven by several factors including business continuity for remote working, online education and consumers' entertainment needs. However, this uptick in mobile PC demand will not continue beyond 2020, as shipments were mainly boosted by short-term business needs due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Source: Gartner

While the overall PC market grew by 2.8% in the second quarter of 2020, Apple doubled that growth by increasing shipments year over year by 5.1%, an increase from approximately 4.1 million units to 4.3 million units. Apple now has a 6.7% market share in the industry.

In the United States, Apple shipped almost two million Macs in the second quarter, an increase of almost a hundred thousand units compared to last year. This enabled the company to increase its market share to 13% in the country.

Gartner does not expect the growth to be maintained past 2020 as the world will hopefully not require as much work from home capabilities if the pandemic is brought under control.

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