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Though supply chain woes and shortages hit the sale of personal-computer shipments in Q4 2021, the pandemic-spurred PC market is likely to continue to boom, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

The data: “International Data Corp. and Canalys said PC shipments in the fourth quarter rose about 1%, while Gartner Inc. said world-wide PC shipments declined 5% in the December quarter, which it said was the first year-over-year decline after six straight quarters of growth. Much of the difference in the tallies from the data providers comes from how each company defines PCs.”

• Shipment numbers averaged to about 345 million units for the quarter, “a roughly 15% increase from the previous year.”
• Supply chain challenges, which are expected to continue through the first half of 2022, led to the drop in PC shipments in the U.S., said Gartner Research Director Mikako Kitagawa.

Why it’s happening: “Remote work and schooling over the past two years have altered the baseline for PCs, with families now needing more than one computer, analysts say. In addition, the industry is experiencing shorter refresh cycles, in part because of a shift to notebooks and other devices that typically need to be replaced earlier.”

• Going forward, experts expect higher consumer spending on premium PCs and monitors.