Canalys' fourth-quarter figures for the global PC market show that the rumors of the pandemic surge of PC shipments starting to fizzle had little basis in reality. 

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According to the measurement company, 2021 saw total PC shipments reach 341 million units, a 15% rise over the 2020s already strong sales, 27% higher than 2019's, and the highest single-year figure since 2012. Even more impressive is the fact that this was accomplished with relatively little growth during the fourth quarter's holiday season, which only saw a 1% year-over-year rise compared to 2020. 

Despite shipments only rising 1% during the fourth quarter, global PC market revenues shot up 11% to$70 billion, while full-year revenue rose 15% to$250 billion in 2021. This generated a 13% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) that Canalys said: "emphasizes how dramatically the importance of PCs has grown since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic." 

All of the new remote workers spawned by the ongoing coronavirus precautions apparently prefer notebooks and mobile workstations to desktops. These product categories grow 16% to account for 275 million of the 341 million total shipments. Meanwhile, desktops and desktop workstations grew less than half of that, rising only 7% since 2020 at 66 million units. 

Lenovo once again led all global PC makers during 2021 with 24.1% of all shipments, a modest 0.3% drop from its 2020 standings. It was followed by HP, which held 21.7% of the market after falling 1% year over year. The remainder of the top five was Dell with 17.4% (up 1.5% since last year), Apple with 8.5% (down 0.9% since last year), and Acer with 7.1% (up 0.4% since last year). 

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Canalys' Principal Analyst Rushabh Doshi claims these figures prime 2022 to be a year of "digital acceleration." He predicts that there will be "revenue growth in the industry from spending on premium PCs, monitors, accessories and other technology products that enable us to work from anywhere, collaborate around the world and remain ultra-productive." This is despite the supply chain disruptions that Doshi apparently expects to continue through 2022.

Additional details on the 2021 global PC market can be found within Canalys' latest release. 

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