Canalys: Tablets and Chromebooks set all-time high shipment records in Q4 2020

Lenovo led the way in sales, followed by Apple

The Global PC market (including tablets) has posted a third consecutive year of annual growth as shipments hit 143.7 million units in Q4 2020.

This is up 35 per cent year-on-year with total shipments growing 17 per cent to reach 458.2 million units.

This was subsequently the highest volume of units since 2015 and was led by Lenovo with shipments of 28.8 million and 87.0 million units respectively.

Apple took second placed on the back of a stellar performance from iPads, shipping 26.4 million Macs and iPads in Q4, bringing the total to 81.4 million units for the year.

HP, Dell, and Samsung made up the rest of the top 5 with each posting double-digit shipment growth in Q4.

The holiday quarter brought continued strength to tablets, with shipments hitting an all-time high of 52.8 million units, for a 2020 total of 160.6 million units and 28 per cent growth over 2019.

Yet again Chromebooks set record shipment volumes, reaching 11.2 million units in Q4 2020, a 287 per cent increase over Q4 2019, bringing the full-year 2020 total to 30.6 million units.

Apple furthered its dominance in the tablet market, with Q4 shipments growing 40 per cent to 19.2 million, its best iPad performance since Q4 2014. Samsung maintained second place in the market with 9.9 million tablets shipped, up 41 per cent from Q4 2019.

Amazon climbed to third place on the back of strong holiday season demand, shipping 6.5 million tablets.

Lenovo was the fastest-growing vendor in Q4, increasing sell-in volume by 125 per cent to reach 5.6 million units. Huawei was the only vendor in the top 5 to see shipments decline year-on-year.