Combined laptop and tablet revenue grew 25% globally in 2020 and will rise another 17% in 2021, reported Strategy Analytics Wednesday. It’s forecasting sustained demand in mobile computing because hybrid work environments “will become more prevalent” than pre-pandemic. “Many employees report tangible benefits from remote work and are increasingly demanding more flexible work environments,” said SA. Supply chain issues and wider vaccine distribution will “tamp down supply and demand by the beginning of 2022,” but household ownership will continue growing through 2025, it said. “Smartphones have become larger and more essential to daily life, but we found out the hard way that real productivity still happens on Notebooks and Detachables,” said analyst Eric Smith.

Q2 average TV selling prices in Germany skyrocketed 24% from a year earlier to 657 euros ($776), enabling 1% revenue growth to 831 million euros ($981.5 million) despite an 18.5% unit decline to nearly 1.3 million sets, reported gfu Wednesday, according to an unofficial English translation. A higher mix of Ultra HD sets and the global scarcity of components helped drive the sharp rise in average selling prices, it said. Gfu estimates three-quarters of the sets sold in Q2 had 4K resolution and 45% had screens 55 inches and larger. About 93% of the TVs sold in the quarter were smart sets, and 76% had voice control, it said. The unit sales decline was “not unusual” amid tough comparisons with the “strong second quarter of 2020,” said gfu Managing Director-Consumer and Home Electronics Sara Warneke.

Global IT spending will grow 8.6% this year to $4.21 trillion, after 0.9% growth in 2020, reported Gartner Wednesday. Communications services will be the biggest chunk at $1.44 trillion, followed by IT services ($1.18 trillion) and devices ($784 billion). “Technology spending is entering a new build budget phase,” said analyst John-David Lovelock. “This means building technologies and services that don’t yet exist.” While many companies expect revenue declines post-pandemic, “IT spending is accelerating ahead of revenue expectations,” said Gartner.

Global PC shipments totaled 71.6 million units in Q2, increasing 4.6% from the same 2020 quarter, reported Gartner. Though PC demand remained above pre-pandemic levels, this was a “marked deceleration” in growth compared with the 35.7% year-over-year increase in Q1, due partly to the impact of “ongoing component shortages,” it said. “The global semiconductor shortage and subsequent component supply constraints have extended lead time for some enterprise mobile PC models to as long as 120 days,” said analyst Mikako Kitagawa. “This has led to prices increasing in the bill of materials, which vendors have passed on to end users.” She predicted rising prices “could continue to slow PC demand” through the next six to 12 months.” Though Gartner doesn't count Chromebooks in its “traditional” PC market reports, Chromebook shipments remained strong in Q2, said the company. IDC does include Chromebooks and other laptops in its PC industry analyses, and reported also Monday that Q2 shipments increased 13.2% from a year earlier to 83.6 million units (see 2107120002).

The worldwide surge in PC demand persisted in Q2, despite global semiconductor shortages and supply chain logistics issues, reported IDC Monday. Global shipments of “traditional” PCs, including desktops, notebooks and workstations, reached 83.6 million units in Q2, up 13.2% from 2020's second quarter, it said. Though annual growth remains “quite high,” the market is beginning to show signs that the torrid demand “has begun to taper off,” said analyst Neha Mahajan. The 13% growth rate in Q2 was “far lower” than the 55.9% increase in Q1 and the 25.8% growth in Q4, she said: "With businesses opening back up, demand potential in the commercial segment appears promising. However, there are also early indicators of consumer demand slowing down as people shift spending priorities after nearly a year of aggressive PC buying." Lenovo leapfrogged HP to take top global share in Q2, albeit by a slim 1.7-point margin, said IDC. Dell Technologies was third and Apple and Acer tied for fourth. Though the top 5 brands had 77.5% of combined global share, “smaller vendors have helped drive growth by offering unique features or niche designs," said IDC.

U.S. consumer spending expanded year over year in June but at a “slightly slower pace” than in May, reported Visa Friday. Its spending momentum index (SMI) suggests 53% of consumers in June were spending more than they did a year earlier, while 47% are spending the same or less, it said. Compared with the pre-pandemic month of June 2019, 51% were spending more in June, down slightly from the 52% of consumers who were spending more in May, it said. “Consumer spending continues to hold up well,” said Visa Chief Economist Wayne Best. “Although there remains a lot of unevenness between regions, the SMI’s solid reading again in June reflects a continued broadening of the spending recovery across regions of the country.”

The U.S. pay-TV industry lost more than 18 million subscribers 2014-2020, including 7 million last year, said Parks Associates Thursday. Traditional pay-TV services had about 10 million sub losses in 2020, Parks said, while overall pay-TV subscriptions fell 7 million, as virtual MVPDs gained 3 million subs, said analyst Kristen Hanich. The only pay-TV category with growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, vMVPDs now account for 16% of U.S. pay-TV households, and are expected to increase to 23 million by 2024 vs. 53 million for traditional pay-TV, Hanich said. ISPs and others operating in pay TV are looking for alternatives to traditional pay TV, said the analyst. Cable companies had some success in bundling around Wi-Fi-first mobile virtual network operator services, primarily running on Verizon’s network, Hanich noted. A Q1 Parks survey showed 4% of broadband households subscribed to Comcast Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile or Altice Mobile. With over 110 million residential and small business internet subs, U.S. ISPs can leverage the “massive subscriber base,” Hanich said.

U.S. consumers think big tech companies “wield too much power” and want Congress and regulatory authorities to rein them in, reported Escalent Tuesday. The market analytics firm canvassed nearly 1,100 U.S. adults online April 14-20, finding nearly two-thirds across party lines believing tech companies have too much power, while more than half, 55%, think the government should regulate them more. “While consumers don’t want big tech to be too powerful, they also want big tech to be powerful enough to continue to make positive impacts on their lives through the products and services these brands provide,” said Escalent.

The pandemic forced most consumers globally into “reimagining” shopping values, basing purchase decisions on factors “beyond price and quality,” reported Accenture Wednesday. It canvassed 25,000 adults in 22 countries December to February, finding 57% of “reimagined consumers” vow to abandon retailers that don’t offer “new fast and flexible delivery options,” such as click-and-collect and curbside pickup. Half say they walked away from companies that “disappointed them by not providing enough support and understanding of their needs during challenging times.” As "the world reopens for business, the consumer we knew is no longer,” said Baiju Shah, Accenture Interactive chief strategy officer. “Today’s consumer desires a different relationship with a brand.”

About half of all “knowledge workers” globally will work remotely at year's end, compared with 27% in 2019, reported Gartner Tuesday. The hybrid workforce will continue to increase demand for PCs and tablets, shipments of which are expected to exceed 500 million units this year for the first time, it said. Gartner estimates remote workers will be 32% of employees worldwide by Dec. 31, up from 17% in 2019. It defines knowledge workers as those in “knowledge-intensive” occupations, such as writers, accountants and engineers. Remote workers by Gartner's definition spend at least one day a week working from home. The U.S. will lead other regions with 53% of its workforce working remotely in 2022, followed by the U.K. (52%), Germany (37%), France (33%), India (30%) and China (28%).