AGI – What happened to the computer market before and after the pandemic? How consumer habits have changed? And the digital divide in Italy? And how much has the shortage of microprocessors impacted on the supply chain and the choices of companies?
According to the most recent data from Canalys desktop workstations closed the third quarter of 2020 with a -27% Compared to twelve months earlier, desktop even at -33%. The numbers of the laptop and portable solutions market are different: we are at + 1% for notebooks, + 3% for mobile workstations for professionals, + 21% for tablets, + 27% for convertibles, +57 % for ultra-slim notebooks and + 88% for so-called detachables.
The real triumphs? Chromebooks with a + 122%. “Devices very similar to a mobile phone. Having arrived in Italy in mid-2020 with positive results, we expect great growth in 2021, also because they intercept the target students”,“ Looking for an approach similar to the mobile experience they are most accustomed to, ”explained Massimo Merici, Business Development Manager System Business Group at Asus.
Not only. According to a study conducted by Intel and Lenovo globally in 2020, Empowering Your Employees With The Right Technology, only 30% of employees across all industries say their laptops or desktop PCs are ideal for cross-collaboration, and half said their computers are out of date or insufficient for work.
Smart working will therefore spur an increase in technology decisions driven by end users together with their IT departments, as the traditionally clear boundaries between business and consumer technology continue to erode and top products such as Lenovo’s X1 Fold are grafted onto this line. : a machine that aspires to be both laptop and tablet, taking advantage of that folding screen that until now had only been seen on smartphones. Sacrificing something to the comfort of the keyboard, but having a tablet equipped with a graphic stylus available to achieve practically anything, professionals willing to spend something in less than three thousand euros have in their hands an apparatus that is unrivaled in terms of appeal. Not exactly a product for Dad. But that the frontier of laptops has reopened is also testified by the fact that a historic manufacturer of cheap smartphones like realme plans to produce a tablet and a laptop. Those yes, designed for young people,
We spoke with Massimo Merici about this and also about the battle of the conductors and the new rhythms imposed on companies.
What was the health of the laptop market before the pandemic and how it changed during
The market has changed dramatically. Before the pandemic the situation was that of a stagnant market of 2 million pieces. We started (source Istat) in 2019 with 33% of families who did not have a device. Here we do not think in terms of “one device per person”, but “one device per family”, which in many cases was not even there. The market then went to three million pieces in 2020. There was a change of gear. A different need for the product has also matured, with more attention to what is actually needed. The market as a whole has in any case obtained a great benefit from the needs born with the Covid situation, but has had to manage the difficulties due to the procurement of components, which have impacted the entire sector, creating delays in deliveries.
Does the desktop market still exist?
From the latest data shared, the pandemic has negatively impacted shipments of all those “office” technology materials, including workstations or desktops. In fact, there is a huge demand for portable accessories to meet the need for smart working and DaD, which have impacted all Italians.
Dad is smart working, but also high gaming: what computers are Italians looking for?
They are looking for a computer that suits their needs. We go in search of real needs.
How many laptops were there in the family before the pandemic and how many now?
Before the pandemic, one in two families had a device (tablet or notebook). The problem of the digital divide saw a third of Italian families not having a PC at home. The pandemic has created a boost in the demand for these materials, to meet the needs of Italians in terms of smart working and DDA, but not only. The lockdown of the months of 2020 saw a dramatic reduction in social interactions, and PCs have certainly helped in this. We do not yet have updated data on what was achieved in 2021, but the growth in demand and shipments, recorded in the first quarter of 2021 and throughout 2020, is certainly a positive figure that leads us to believe in an improvement in the situation. current.
Was your company prepared to deal with increased demands or was there a hitch in the supply chain?
There are situations on which ASUS certainly cannot intervene. Instead, you need to better manage the resources you have and use the relationships with parts suppliers. The market continues to do very well, despite the shortage of components and logistical problems, which have contributed to the increase in average prices. According to analysts, at the end of 2020 the PC supply chain failed to respond to the strong demand for remote working and distance learning products. For this, a large number of back orders have been created. The rising curve of the first quarter of 2021 is a consequence of this request, which should persist for at least the entire first half of the current year.
Are you worried about the battle on the microprocessor market? How could it impact your production?
Despite the continued shortage of chips, the industry sold 83.981 million PCs in the first quarter of 2021, up 55.2% from the same period last year and a modest 8% decline from the fourth quarter of the year. 2020, traditionally very strong. It is a situation that we keep under control in a spasmodic way. Resources must be maximized. We have also been impacted, but we are working to minimize the impact of this situation. Above all with a different schedule: if before we worked in terms of months, now we are already in 2022.
.