Maybe the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the PC sales, but as soon as working and studying from home became a part of everyday life, many businesses and people started buying PCs and other IT equipment, making the first quarter in 2021 the highest in PC unit sales since 2015. And not only that, according to the research from Gartner, this first quarter holds the highest growth rate of PC shipments to retailers and other vendors (32%) compared to the same quarter last year.

The estimate is that 69.9 million units (laptops and desktops) have been delivered in Q1 2021, and the only better first quarter was in 2015 when 71.7 million units have been shipped. So, Covid-19 life has been good to PC makers like Lenovo (OTC:LNVGY), HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ), Dell (NYSE:DELL), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Acer, and Asus.

The PC sales boom that started last year is still going on. If we add the number of delivered Chromebooks (the less expensive laptops with Google operating systems, which are well accepted by schools), Gartner's estimate is that the PC market grew an incredible 47% (shipped units). Having in mind that the PC sales are historically strong, even though people are returning to offices and schools, the boom may not end yet, as the first quarters are usually a slower time for PC makers.

Before both HP and Dell announced their quarterly earnings reports last Thursday, both companies' stock exceeded this year's performance of the two most valued companies in the market, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). While Microsoft was up by 1.23% and Apple by 1.41%, HP was up by 31% this year, and Dell 36% in the same period. The quarterly reports managed to come through and capitalize the stock performance. HP's revenues jumped 27% (year to year), while Dell's revenues went up 12% (also year to year). They both exceeded Wall Street's estimates.

Lenovo managed to improve its position as the industry leader for PCs, with a 25.1% market share in the first quarter this year. The company's growth was higher than the market increase, making its growth the highest among the top PC sellers. The last quarter in 2020 was the best in the company's history with revenue growth of 48% (year to year) and net income growth of more than 500%. The outlook looks great in terms of growth, profit margins are getting better, and new potential in the mobile phone business looks promising.

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