Notebooks turn a page in specs, sales
Soaring growth as Southern Africa snaps up powerful little PCs
Notebook computer sales have boomed in Southern Africa, rising by a massive 42% in the first half of this year — a trend driven by remote working and a transforming education market.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), this growth more than balanced a 30% drop in desktop computer sales. In a quarterly research report on personal computing devices (PCD), the IDC says the growth came despite global supply challenges caused by a shortage of computer chips. Solid planning by the major manufacturers appears to have been a key factor in overcoming the shortages.
“The Southern Africa PCD market continued to experience a surge in demand, particularly for mobile devices such as notebooks and tablets, due to huge corporate backlog orders, the continuation of work-from-home policies, and the growing adoption of education technologies to support e-learning,” said Grace Munyi, a research analyst at IDC.
“However, stock supply shortages continued, driving vendors to place orders with manufacturers a year in advance and order higher stock volumes than required to help navigate the challenge. This enabled them to ship a higher number of devices than the previous year’s stock volume.”
Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, which diversified its supply chain globally prior to the pandemic, was the winner, dominating the Southern African market with a 22.7% share of total PC shipments. It overtook HP, which had been market leader for the same period in 2020, but slipped into second with a 19.7% share. Dell Technologies is third at 16.1%.
Thibault Dousson, SA country general manager of Lenovo, said the company has an advantage worldwide through a hybrid production strategy that includes its own manufacturing, original equipment manufacturers, and a combination of the two, which allowed it to produce and ship more units.
Lenovo, he said, sees “a clear trend of upgrades in smart devices, ICT infrastructure, and applications, creating significant new opportunities”.
In SA, “education has played a huge role in notebook growth … with an average of 100% growth quarter over quarter for the last six quarters. Retail also had a strong year with the switch from one computer per family to one computer per person.”
A growing corporate work-from-home strategy has also boosted demand for notebooks. Couple that with Windows 7 being out of support and the imminent launch of
Windows 11, the growth of notebooks has been phenomenal in SA and globally. “Demand has not slowed down in the last six quarters and there is very little sign of it being
weaker in the coming months,” he said.
A big surprise in the rankings was the arrival of local brand Proline in the top four, rising from 1.4% of the market in the first half of 2020 to 12.3% this year, largely thanks to a deal with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to supply notebooks for students.
The local notebook boom mirrored global trends, with Dell last month reporting the best second quarter in its history, and revenue rising 15% year on year to $26.1bn (R384.7bn). In the local commercial PC segment, which grew 49.2% in the second quarter due to remote working, Dell maintained market leadership with a 29.1% share.
Chris Buchanan, director of client solutions for Dell in SA, said this week the company expects continued growth in demand for PCs “as the do-from-anywhere world is here to stay. While the PC has always helped us connect, collaborate, and communicate, 2020 has proven the value it brings to our lives more than any other time.
“We’re witnessing the renaissance of the PC. Not a resurgence, as that would imply a period of little activity, but a renaissance — an entirely new way to think about something. The PC serves as the gateway for us all to work, play and learn. Because of this intimacy, people are expecting more from their PC now than ever before.”
Buchanan said he believes a number of factors will continue driving PC sales, in particular the expansion of what the industry calls the total addressable market. “First, millions of people still need PCs for education; second, the number of PCs per household will increase; and third, refresh cycles are accelerating with the shift to notebooks. Globally, more than 700-million PCs are more than four years old, with faster future replacement cycles, given the shift to notebooks.”
Helping to drive the shift is the increasing capabilities of notebooks, which traditionally carried substantially lower specs than desktop machines. That is changing, as the spec balance of power shifts to notebooks.
“Dell Technologies is working on augmenting PCs with technologies like cloud, 5G and artificial intelligence [AI], to offer smart, personalised experiences. While we’ve long been on this journey, we now have the opportunity to pause and rethink how we bring about this future,” said Buchanan.
The remote working revolution in the enterprise market has occurred in parallel with a move to hybrid learning in education, with pupils and university students facing a mix of in-class and from-home teaching.
“In South Africa’s education sector, we’ve seen hybrid learning emerge as the new way of learning and this is expected to stay throughout 2021,” said Buchanan. “As a result, schools and universities have needed to digitally transform to continue to educate students …
“This puts the onus on chief information officers to reprioritise spending in response to shifts in the market, motivate for grants where necessary, and ensure that universities are well positioned to respond to change.”
The global chip shortage has partly been a boon for manufacturers, as it has pushed prices up, even for those PC makers with healthy production models. Dell said it continuously explores alternative sourcing, production, and logistics strategies.
Even tablet sales have seen a revival, with the IDC reporting 10.2% year-on-year growth for the first half of 2021.
Samsung continues to dominate this market, with a 27.8% share, up 2.1% on the previous year. Lenovo is second at 15% — up 4.6%.
A surprise laggard here is Apple, with only 6.6% share for its iPads, which initiated the tablet market just over a decade ago.
“IDC anticipates that the Southern Africa PCD market will grow further in the second half of 2021 as demand for mobile PCs and tablets remains strong across the region, particularly from the education and business sectors,” said Fouad Charakla, IDC’s senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
“IDC anticipates the Southern Africa PCD market to grow 19.7% year on year in 2021.”
We’re witnessing the renaissance of the PC … an entirely new way to think about it Chris Buchanan
Director of client solutions for Dell in SA