Lenovo Largest Laptop Vendor in Q1 2021, Chrome OS Sees Highest YoY Adoption: Report

Global notebook PC shipments increased 81 percent year-on-year as more companies adopted a hybrid work model with an emphasis on remote working, according to a new report by market research firm Strategy Analytics on the first quarter of 2021. Lenovo was the largest global notebook PC shipments vendor with 16.3 million units shipped in Q1 2021 and a market share of 23.9 percent. Chromebooks dominated the education sector with Chrome OS seeing a 174 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. Its shipments increased from 4.4 million in Q1 2020 to 12.1 million in Q1 2021.

The report says the top five vendors in the PC segment were Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, and Acer. After Lenovo, HP was the second largest PC vendor with a 22.6 percent market share in Q1 2021. It shipped 15.4 million units in the quarter and saw YoY growth of 91 percent. Dell's market share was at 14.6 percent, Apple's at 8.4 percent, and Acer's at 7.2 percent in the quarter ending March 2021. Strategy Analytics says that Dell shipped 10 million units in the quarter gaining a modest 37 percent YoY growth, and Apple shipped 5.7 million units gaining a 94 percent YoY growth. While Acer shipped 4.9 million units in Q1 2021 seeing a YoY growth of 94 percent as well.

Strategy Analytics attributes this increase in sales to the COVID-19 pandemic spurring work-from-home demand. The report says that the notebook PC upgrade cycle was also a main driving factor for commercial demand, while the consumer segment contributed with strong e-learning and gaming activities from home in the first quarter.

The demand for Chromebooks was at an all-time high with Chrome OS seeing a 174 percent YoY quarterly growth. This was largely attributed to Chromebooks being popular in the education sector. Even with the massive growth, Windows OS continued to dominate the PC landscape with 49.8 million shipments in Q1 2021, according to Strategy Analytics. Chrome, on the other hand, came in second with 12.1 million shipments in the same quarter. MacOS comes in third with 5.7 million shipments. Windows enjoyed a 73 percent market share as of Q1 2021, with Chrome OS at 17.7 percent market share, and macOS at 8.4 percent market share.