The personal computer (PC) market has been booming with no signs of a slowdown despite the chip shortage. This is especially true as PC sales saw the fastest year-over-year growth in the last two decades for the first quarter of 2021 buoyed by strong demand from consumers working and studying remotely, according to Gartner. This was followed by the biggest PC sales growth in decades last year (read:
ETFs to Tap the Sustained Semiconductor Boom
).
Overall, worldwide PC shipment surged 32% to 69.9 million in the first quarter with Lenovo leading the way higher with 42.3% year-over-year growth. HP
HPQ
also recorded strong growth of 34.6% while Dell
DELL
, Apple
AAPL
, and Acer rounded out the next three PC manufacturers. From a market share look, Lenovo and HP gained a 25.1% and 21.4%, respectively. Dell, Apple and Acer Group took the third, fourth and fifth spots with 16.5%, 8.0% and 5.7% market share, respectively. Including Chromebooks, the worldwide PC market grew 47% year over year, as Chromebook shipments increased triple digits on investment among educational institutions in North America (see:
all the Technology ETFs here
).
International Data Corp. (IDC) pegged increase of global shipments of personal computers, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations at
55.2% year over year
to 84 million units. The strong growth was driven by the continued resurgence in the PC market, increase in average selling prices, growth in gaming, the need for higher performance notebooks in the enterprise, and an increase in demand for touchscreens within the education segment.
Meanwhile, Canalys revealed a 55% year-over-year increase in PC shipments to 82.7 million units in the first quarter, the highest Q1 shipment number since 2012. Shipments of notebooks and mobile workstations increased 79% year over year (read:
Technology Regains Momentum: 5 ETFs Leading the Way
).
Most analysts project the solid trend to continue in the first half of 2021 due to increasing PC demand though global chip shortage might hinder growth. As such, investors could ride out the splurging PC market with the technology ETFs, which have a solid Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) suggesting their continued outperformance. Some of these are
Vanguard Information Technology ETF
VGT
,
iShares U.S. Technology ETF
IYW
,
Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund
XLK
,
First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund
FXL
and
MSCI Information Technology Index ETF
FTEC
.
Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?
Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week.
Get it free >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.
Click to get this free report
