Desktop market in 2020: growth in sales and competition

Elusive statistics

For the second quarter of 2020, data on the Russian desktop PC market from IDC are already publicly available. In total, about 1.49 million desktop and laptop computers were delivered to Russia during this period, which is 30.1% more than in the same period in 2019, and the share of consumer desktop models increased by 6% to the first quarter of 2020. The total supplies of desktop PCs (consumer and commercial) in the second quarter of last year increased by 1.6% year-on-year and amounted to 432 thousand units. Analysts point out that all-in-one PCs were the most popular among form factors, and the top five vendors in terms of supplies of desktop PCs to Russia in the second quarter of 2020 looked like this: HP, Lenovo, Acer, iRU, Dell.

The ITResearch agency, already evaluating the sale-out of desktop PCs for the same period, speaks of 640 thousand units, which is 1.5% less than was sold in the Russian Federation in the second quarter of 2019. As can be seen, the sales of desktops in the second quarter exceeded the volume of their supplies by almost one and a half times, which testifies to a truly rush demand for these means of digital production (as well as communications and leisure activities, which became especially relevant during the lockdown).

The thing is that the shortage in commercial supplies was compensated by the growth in shipments of desktop PCs. Dmitry Shulgin, the leading ITResearch expert, points out: "This especially affected the 'older brothers' of laptops - all-in-one desktops (AIO)." All-in-one PC supplies in the second quarter of 2020 increased by 30%, and their contribution to the total desktop segment increased to a very significant 15%. In total, 1.4 million desktop PCs were sold in the first half of the year (almost 180 thousand of which are AIOs), so the desktop market grew 17% year-on-year in the first six months of 2020.

The expert emphasizes: "This was due to the contribution of the first quarter, which was very good." As modest as the supplies of desktop PCs in the first quarter were their sales during the same period, including by actually sweeping away the previously accumulated inventory at all levels of the channel, provided extremely enviable growth in this segment of the IT market. According to ITResearch, HP became the leader in desktop PC sales in Russia in the second quarter. The top five also included (in alphabetical order) Acer, Depo, iRu, Lenovo. Together, the leading group sold 42% of all desktops in Russia. The top salesmen for AIO are — also in alphabetical order — Acer, Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. <…>

As Sergey Kochepasov, Business Development Director at iRU, said during the November Merlion Digital Day conference, in 2020, corporate users faced two challenges: how to keep a business operating in a stressful situation and how to make it even more efficient: "When everyone was locked home, those "computers" that were already in almost every family were not enough. At the same time, it was important for many to buy a computer. Working with numerous tables, with different data sources, etc. on a laptop is inconvenient: a large monitor, comfortable keyboard, and mouse really help to increase efficiency. But not everyone has an office at home — so, there was a question not only of buying, but also of placing equipment. All this has led to an increase in demand for PCs in compact form factors. The second segment that showed good dynamics is all-in-one PCs. They were bought by home users, corporate users, and the public sector." <…>

Harvest year

Summing up the results of 2020, IDC noted that in the IV quarter, supplies of desktop PCs in Russia decreased by 8.4% compared to last year, amounting to 517 thousand units. In the top five vendors at the end of the year as a whole, there is a remarkable change: in comparison with the II quarter, the global and domestic vendors, occupying the third and fourth places, have changed places, so now the table of ranks in this segment of the IT market in terms of supplies looks like this: HP, Lenovo, iRU, Acer and Dell. In general, 5.9 million PCs (including laptops) were delivered to the Russian Federation over the past year, which is 11.6% more than in 2019.

Sales of desktop PCs, ITResearch notes, grew in the Russian Federation for the whole year by 12.2%, to 3.49 million units, 1.14 million of which were sold in the IV quarter. Experts have recorded — for the first time in many years — the growth of the home gaming computer segment, especially noticeable against the background of an unstable state of corporate demand for desktop PCs. After almost complete abating during the period of self-isolation, commercial customers began to make purchases of desktops again, but the budgets for these purposes were clearly not allocated even in last year's volumes.

As a result, the presence of leading vendors in the Russian segment of desktop PCs has slightly decreased: in the second half of the year, according to ITResearch, the total share of the top ten suppliers dropped below half of the market, although traditionally in recent years it exceeded 50% of sales. In some places, small retailers' self-assembly of system blocks has even revived, and in general, small regional companies have become more active. The total share of foreign suppliers dropped to a quarter of the market. HP became the leader of the desktop segment in 2020 in terms of sales in the Russian Federation; Lenovo and iRU were also in the top three. <…>

The full version of the article with the views of all participants (distributors, vendors, analysts) is available on the CRN website.