The global PC market had a 23% year-on-year bump in shipments to 124.5 million, said Canalys Thursday. Lenovo led, shipping 23.5 million tablets, notebooks and desktops, followed by Apple with 22.1 million Macs and iPads, HP with 18.7 million PCs and Dell with 12 million PCs. Tablets grew 43% to 44.3 million, with Apple taking the top position, growing 47% to 15.2 million. Samsung tablet sales spiked 80%, topping the 9 million mark for the first time since 2015. “Tablets are a natural choice for first-time PC users who want something uncomplicated and affordable,” said analyst Victoria Li, citing the “natural extension of Android and iOS" from phones to tablets, which made it simple for those “who dabbled with extended remote learning for the first time.” Chromebook shipments jumped 122% to a record 9.4 million. Detachables grew 88%, and all-in-ones advanced 7%, while the overall desktop category slid 32%.

The accelerating shift of advertisers to digital likely bolsters Roku, Wedbush's Michael Pachter wrote investors Monday. COVID-19 conditions are increasing adoption, creating potential to grow revenue and profits significantly in the long run as incremental Roku device sales along with “substantial” active user growth likely drive higher ad spend, said the analyst. The accessibility of live sports over over-the-top platforms accelerated cord cutting, a trend seen continuing “in a recessionary environment as streaming has a more favorable and flexible price point than cable.” Despite uncertainty, Roku appears to be on “solid footing for future expansion as ad spend is diverted from TV to OTT and overall ad spend will certainly expand again in a post-recession environment,” Pachter said. The company reports Q3 earnings Thursday.

Nearly six in 10 consumers plan to spend about the same on electronics this holiday season as last year, reported the Conference Board Friday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through mid-October as part of its monthly consumer confidence survey. It found fewer than a third planning to spend less on electronics and 12.6% planning to spend more, fourth behind toys and games (17.7%), gift cards (15.9%) and sporting goods (13.8%). Consumers are entering this holiday season intending to spend on average about $673, on par with last year’s spending estimate of $675, said the board. “The continued inclination to stay at home will bode well for e-commerce,” it said, as 52% said they plan to make at least half of their purchases online, a 10-point increase from last year. That consumers are entering the holidays with intentions to spend about the same as last year is “relatively good news at a time when consumer confidence remains below pre-pandemic levels, unemployment is elevated, and the economy appears to be losing momentum heading into the final stretch of 2020,” it said. “With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise, retailers should prepare for a surge in online traffic and purchases.”

Free shipping will be the “sweet spot” for most consumers this holiday and the top factor influencing where they will shop, reported NPD Monday. The finding “corresponds with consumers’ increasing use of online shopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said. Online shopping will include shipping gifts “to family and friends with whom they won’t be able to celebrate in person this year,” it said. “The addition of shipping fees to all of these deliveries is a bigger financial burden on consumers than getting the best deal on the item itself.” NPD estimates consumers will spend an average of $691 this holiday season, less than in 2019 but “on par” with 2018.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets remained steady in October compared with September, reported the Conference Board Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through Oct. 16, finding 10.6% planning to buy a new TV in the next six months, compared with 11% in September and 12.3% in October 2019. Consumer confidence declined slightly this month after a sharp improvement in September, said the board: “There is little to suggest that consumers foresee the economy gaining momentum in the final months of 2020, especially with COVID-19 cases on the rise and unemployment still high.”

A fifth of consumers polled in 10 countries plan to do most holiday shopping in physical stores, with 47% splitting their time between online and brick-and-mortar, an Oracle survey released Monday found. It canvassed 5,100 consumers last month in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S., finding 16% plan to “make it as close as the parking lot, opting to retrieve orders curbside,” said Oracle. “Despite the challenging year, 58% of consumers expect to spend the same or more on holiday shopping than they did last year.” Nearly four in 10 say they plan to spend more this year on apparel and necessities, while 29% say similar about electronics.

Overall holiday spending is expected to fall, with the e-commerce share rising, Accenture forecast Friday. Forty percent of consumers say they will spend less than they did for the 2019 holidays, said a survey of 1,517 U.S. consumers fielded in August. Retailers need to shore up digital commerce with resilient supply chains, it said, while practicing “operational agility” and using data analytics with social responsibility. Getting consumers to shop earlier will be key to ensuring supply chains can meet intense e-commerce demand during peak shopping periods, Accenture said. About a third of consumers plan to shop earlier. It's “shaping up to be a very 'human' holiday season for consumers, with a desire to support the people who have served our communities,” said Jill Standish, senior managing director-global lead, retail. Three-quarters of consumers support retailers closing on Thanksgiving; 60% plan to minimize in-store shopping to reduce health risks to workers. About 57% said they would be inspired to patronize a retailer that supported its staff and customers during the pandemic; 41% said they wouldn’t shop a retailer that laid off or reduced staff due to the virus. Some 75 percent of consumers say they will do some holiday shopping online this year, up from 65% last year; 43% plan to shop exclusively online. Retailers need to fortify e-commerce capabilities, providing detailed visibility into demand changes and inventory and focusing on “seamless experiences and fulfillment efficiency,” said Brooks Kitchel, managing director-strategy, retail. Over three-quarters of shoppers want purchases delivered directly to their homes. Patience shown early during COVID-19 is waning: 56% said they won’t shop with a retailer again after an unsatisfactory delivery experience.

The pandemic is accelerating global cord cutting, with worldwide pay-TV market subscribership likely to decline slightly this year to 1.07 billion, ABI Research said Wednesday. Cancellation of many live sports events resulted in fans dropping their pay-TV packages, it said. Cord cutting had been largely occurring in mature markets with high broadband penetration, but the economic effects of the pandemic are also driving cord cutting in emerging markets, it said. Those losses are likely temporary, with sports fans returning and pay-TV growth in emerging markets beyond the pandemic, it said: The global subscriber base is expected to hit 1.1 billion by 2025. The Diffusion Group said Wednesday it sees more than half of U.S. broadband homes without an MVPD service by 2025, with pay-TV services losing 36% of their 2020 subscriber base. Between 2015 and 2020, they lost 9.5%, TDG said. Currently, 27% of U.S. broadband households are without an MVPD service.

Over four in 10 U.S. consumers plan to buy a TV this holiday season, with smart TVs leading gift-giving and receiving tech lists, said a Roku survey conducted by Harris. Some 70% plan to spend the same or more on gifts this holiday season, said Tuesday's report. Average holiday spending is expected to be $885, up 2.5% from the 2019 survey; a third plan to buy more gifts due to sheltering in place rules barring them from visiting family and friends. Also due to COVID-19 concerns, consumers expect to do 65% of their holiday shopping virtually. Most consumers are primary streamers, with nearly one in three having cut the cord. For the first time in the survey’s history, Americans reported spending more time streaming than watching pay TV; average reported streaming hours grew 19% year over year vs. traditional TV viewing hours, which fell 13%. Some marketers are adapting their advertising strategies to meet consumers where they spend most of their viewing time, said Roku Chief Marketing Officer Matthew Anderson. About 43% of consumers (including two-thirds of millennials) said an ad on a streaming service led them to pause content, go online and shop for the product advertised. Citing a “tipping point” for the future of TV, Abbey Lunney, director-trends and thought leadership at Harris Poll, said the shift to streaming shows that marketers need to adjust their engagement strategies. The survey polled 2,000 U.S. adults Sept. 8-12.

Consumer TV-buying intentions increased in September from August, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through Sept.18, finding 11% planned to buy a new TV in the next six months, said the board. That was up from the revised 10% in August and essentially unchanged from 11.1% in July, but down from 12.5% in September 2019. Consumer confidence increased sharply in September, after back-to-back monthly declines, “but remains below pre-pandemic levels,” said the board. “A more favorable view of current business and labor market conditions, coupled with renewed optimism about the short-term outlook, helped spur this month’s rebound.”