Though this growth rate was buoyed by a weak Q1 2020, total shipments of 82.7 million units is still impressive and the highest Q1 shipment number since 2012.

Backlogs on orders from 2020, particularly for notebooks, were a key driver, though new demand is also a factor as smaller businesses begin their recoveries.

Shipments of notebooks and mobile workstations increased 79 percent year on year to reach 67.8 million units.

Desktops improved slightly at the start of 2021 after a string of poor quarters in 2020, with the level of shipment decline easing. Shipments of desktop and desktop workstations fell five percent year on year to 14.8 million units.

The strong recovery from a weak Q1 2020 saw all top five vendors achieve double digit year on year shipment growth. Lenovo maintained pole position in the PC market, securing a 25 percent market share and posting a year-on-year increase of 61 percent, with shipments of 20.4 million units. HP, spurred by solid Chromebook shipments, came second with total shipments of 19.2 million units, a 64 percent increase in Q1 2020.

Dell lost market share against Q4 but took third place in the rankings, growing shipments, 23 percent year on year, to hit 12.9 million units. Apple and Acer made up the rest of the top five, shipping 6.6 million and 5.7 million units to enjoy the highest and second-highest annual growth, respectively.

Cumulatively, the top five vendors accounted for 78.5 percent of all PC shipments in Q1 2021.