A customer looks at Dell computers at a Best Buy store in Orem, Utah.
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Computer makers shipped 79.2 million PCs in the third quarter, up 12.7% year over year, showing the fastest growth in a decade, technology research company Canalys estimated on Friday.
Despite the swelling popularity of phones and tablets in recent years, people have been leaning harder on personal computers while working or studying from home in the past several months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Acer of Taiwan was the biggest individual beneficiary from the trend in the third quarter, shipping 5.6 million PCs, up 15%, according to the Canalys estimates, which include Chromebooks that run Google-led Chrome OS. The company said Lenovo, the largest PC maker by shipments in the quarter, shipped 19.3 million PCs, up 11.4%.
Microsoft, whose Windows 10 operating system runs on over 1 billion devices, said in May that people are spending more than 4 trillion minutes per month on Windows 10, up 75% on an annualized basis.
Other firms such as Gartner and IDC have not issued third-quarter estimates yet. Gartner said in July that second-quarter PC shipments grew 2.8%.
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