Pandemic Drove Sales of 4G and 5G-Enabled PCs To New Record In 2020 (strategyanalytics.com) 11
Global sales of cellular-enabled mobile PCs reached more than 10 million units for the first time in 2020 as home workers sought improved connectivity in response to the closure of office facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research firm Strategy Analytics: According to the latest analysis from Strategy Analytics' Connected Computing Devices program, global shipments increased by 70% to 10.1 million, the highest ever annual total. North America accounted for nearly half of 3G-, 4G- and 5G-enabled PC shipments, while Europe and Asia-Pacific accounted for 45%. The report, Notebook PC Cellular Connectivity Shipment and Installed Base Forecast, estimates that more than 26 million cellular-enabled PCs are now in use worldwide, an increase of 25% in twelve months.
While 4G/LTE standards dominated the market in 2020, accounting for 97% of cellular-enabled PC shipments, 5G notebook launches in 2021 are showing a greater diversity in price points, form factors, and vendor participation, and Strategy Analytics expects 5G to build its share towards 69% by 2025. The report indicates that this growth will depend on improvements in customer education by vendors, carriers and retailers.
While 4G/LTE standards dominated the market in 2020, accounting for 97% of cellular-enabled PC shipments, 5G notebook launches in 2021 are showing a greater diversity in price points, form factors, and vendor participation, and Strategy Analytics expects 5G to build its share towards 69% by 2025. The report indicates that this growth will depend on improvements in customer education by vendors, carriers and retailers.
Laptop sales in general were higher (Score:3)
Laptop sales in 2020 were about 25% higher than 2019 with an estimated 218 million devices shipped. If about 50 million more laptops were sold, but the number of 4G and 5G devices increased by only 5 million, they're really not driving sales at all. It's more representative that a larger portion of mid-range units have the feature. This feature costs about $30/month/device so it's doubtful that many people are actually using it considering a 5G-to-Wifi hub would be much cheaper for a family with no landline high speed internet connections and everyone with it would just use normal Wifi.
As a sanity check with another relatively recently introduced technology is fingerprint sensors. They were growing about 15% a year among laptops based on the trends from 2015-2018 when laptop sales were relatively constant. Just assuming the same trend continued and adding in the 25% sales increase from everyone buying laptops for their kids we would expect to see an increase of about 40% this year from that technology alone.
Re: Laptop sales in general were higher (Score:4, Insightful)
4G and 5G PCs were bought not because of that capability, but because they were the only thing left on the shelf after everything else went.
I don't even know what the use case is for these PCs. Anyone who can afford one already also has a smartphone with wifi hotspot capability, and can connect a regular pc that way.
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I don't even know what the use case is for these PCs.
They're for mobile business use, basically. You don't want to be dicking with tethering while you're trying to run a cash register at an event. People often use tablets with cellular for the same purpose, but some people need a keyboard.
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Fair enough. But that's definitely not a use case that increased in prevalence during with the 2020 lockdowns.
It may have, as service has moved outdoors. But I doubt it increased anywhere near enough to explain the increase in sales. I too agree with the "what was left on the shelf" theory, at least to some degree. Last time I was in wally world, which was at the height of PC buying, they still had a couple of the same Ryzen 3 laptops that I've got one of from them. $300, Ryzen 3, 2-core integrated radeon, and 128GB SSD. I doubled the RAM from 4GB and it has handled everything I've thrown at it, which obviously has
Wait a minute ! (Score:3)
Wait a minute, are we sure it was not the other way around and the increase of 5G sales was what drove the pandemic?
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5G caused the virus, but these things reduce the ambient 5G in the environment.
Sarcastic story time everyone:
There were all of these 5G stations producing 5G and nothing actually able to consume it but nobody actually had 5G devices. The surplus 5G energy in the environment and every biologist would tell you that life evolves to exploit any ecological niche be it a dung beetle taking a few calories from poop or the chemical consuming organisms that live near hydrothermal vents. The ambient 5G radiation beca
Looking forward to WiFi 6E coming out in a big way (Score:2)
5G just seems like a lot of hype from cellphone companies, no?
https://www.pcmag.com/news/wha... [pcmag.com]
Bundled feature or desired feature? (Score:2)
The statistics don't show how many laptops that had been purchased because they had a cellular modem.
Every PC comes with lots of features that you will never use. The manufacturers decide which sets of features are available, so you can't chose to save money and not to have them without missing out on capabilities that you do want.
People use them? (Score:2)
I know people use their smartphones with their computers. A few use their tablets that have cellular connections.
Is that really a thing? (Score:2)
Granted, I tend to buy off-lease refurbished laptops, not brand-new, so I may not be the best judge of what's current, but do people actually CHOOSE laptops with cellular modems built-in? Is that really a thing?
The only way a cellular laptop makes sense is if you are constantly working away from home - like in a cafe or airport terminal - nobody did that last year during the shutdowns, did they.
As others commented, these were bought because they are what was available at the time.