Taipei-Acer Inc., a leading PC vendor in Taiwan, became the largest global Chromebook computer brand in the fourth quarter of last year, when the industry suffered a component shortage, with shipments falling almost 64 percent from a year earlier, according to market information advisory firm International Data Corp. (IDC).
Data compiled by IDC showed that while Acer’s Chromebook shipments fell 43.3 percent from a year earlier to 1.3 million units in the October-December period, its market share rose to 26.3 percent from 16.8 percent to make it the top Chromebook seller in the world for the quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Chromebook shipments worldwide plunged 63.6 percent from a year earlier to 4.8 million units, IDC said.
“Much of the initial demand for Chromebooks has been satiated in primary markets like the U.S. and Europe and this has led to a slowdown in overall shipments,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, in a statement. “However, Chromebook demand in emerging markets has seen continued growth in the past year.”
“Supply has also been unusually tight for Chromebooks as component shortages have led vendors to prioritize Windows machines due to their higher price tags, further suppressing Chromebook shipments on a global scale,” Ubrani said.
U.S.-based Dell Technologies came in second after shipping about 1 million Chromebooks in the fourth quarter, down 63.6 percent from a year earlier, which gave it a 20.3-percent global market share; ahead of China’s Lenovo, which sold 800,000 units for a 16.1-percent market share. In fourth and fifth place respectively were South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Corp., which sold 600,000 units for a 12.3-percent market share; and U.S.-based HP Inc., which sold 500,000 units for a 9.9-percent share.
For the entire 2021, Chromebook shipments worldwide totaled 37 million units, up 13.5 percent from a year earlier with Acer being the third-largest supplier after shipping 6.4 million units, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, to take a 17.3-percent share of the global market, IDC said.
HP took first place in 2021 after shipping 10.2 million Chromebooks, up 9.3 percent from a year earlier, which gave it a 27.7-percent share of the global market; ahead of Lenovo, which shipped 8.3 million units, up 23.4 percent from a year earlier and giving it a 22.4-percent market share, IDC added.
Dell Technologies saw its Chromebook shipments fall 5.2 percent year-on-year to 5.4 million units which represented a 14.6-percent market share in 2021 to rank fourth ahead of Samsung, which shipped 3.2 million units, up 77.2 percent from a year earlier, to take an 8.8-percent share.
In terms of tablet computers, IDC said shipments for the fourth quarter dropped 11.9 percent from a year earlier to 46 million units, marking a decline for the second time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.
In 2021, however, tablet shipments since 2016 reached 168.8 million units, up 3.2 percent from the previous year, IDC said.
Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, said although 2021 was a great year for the global tablet market, shipments have begun to decelerate as the market has moved past peak demand in many regions.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel