Canalys: Apple Shipped 16% More PCs in 2020, but Still Lags Behind Dell, HP, and Lenovo

Apple shipped 22.6 million PCs in 2020, an increase of 16 percent over 2019's 19.4 million, but the company remains well behind rivals, according to a new report by Canalys.

The report, which excludes tablet computers, shows that worldwide PC market growth accelerated significantly in the final quarter of 2020. Shipments of desktops, notebooks, and workstations increased by 25 percent year-on-year to reach a record 90.3 million units. The fourth quarter of 2020 was the third consecutive quarter of sequential growth, bolstered by strong holiday season demand.

For the whole of 2020, PC shipments grew 11 percent to reach 297 million units, which is the highest full-year growth since 2010 and the highest shipment volume since 2014. Canalys notes that PC market growth in 2020 was "singlehandedly driven" by notebooks and mobile workstations, with these devices increasing in shipments by 44 percent to reach 235.1 million units. Desktop and workstation shipments fell 20 percent from 2019 to reach 61.9 million units.

Apple placed fourth for PC shipments over the course of 2020 with 22.6 million devices. HP and Dell shipped over twice as many PCs as Apple, and Lenovo led the market with 72.6 million units. Nevertheless, Apple shipped 16 percent more devices than it did in 2019.

Looking toward 2021, Canalys predicts that the PC market will become even more competitive. The industry as a whole is reportedly reorienting toward a broader range of customers with "new behaviors and use cases," though it is expected to be constrained to some extent by supply shortages for the first half of the year.

In an effort to capitalize on increased demand from 2020, vendors are expected to put chipset innovations and operating systems at the forefront. A particular trend that Canalys expects to emerge is a fierce rivalry between Apple and Microsoft in the domain of custom silicon, but there may also be attention on updates to Chrome and Windows in an effort to lure users away from rival platforms.