The Year Of The Desktop Computer?

Not Exactly By Choice, Mind You

The volume of laptop and desktop sales predicted for this year are higher than they have been in over a decade, while at the same time shortages are predicted to continue to plague us until around this time next year.  That is good and bad news simultaneously; there is a huge demand for computers that has built up over the past year or so but the models available aren’t going to meet everyone’s needs.  If the predictions are correct, with total shipments increasing by 18% to 357 million units we can hope the profits from those sales help feed a full market resurgence by the summer of 2022.

Laptop sales are predicted to jump, but with most manufacturers only able to keep one or two weeks worth of orders in stock there are long delays between the initial order of a laptop and it landing in your hands.  This is why Gartner and IDC are predicting the first significant upswing in the sales of desktops for the a very long time.  Desktops are immune to the panel shortage, just one of the scarce components that plague laptop sellers, and with the proper chip can also skip the GPU.  That will help out businesses looking to get people back in the office ensure they have something to work on.  To a lesser extent boutique desktop shops will also see a boost in sales as buying a full system is about the only way to get your hands on a current generation GPU for anywhere near MSRP.

Sadly this increase in demand is also likely to drive up the prices being charged, which you should keep in mind if you are shopping right now.  Expect things to get worse before they get better; while still hoping it won’t be an excessive jump such as the Apple trashcan you can read about just a wee bit below.