Microsoft seeing increased demand for Surface laptops as components remain in short supply

PC OEMs, who have seen the PC market grow for the first time in nearly a decade last year, expect the good times to continue through 2021, reports Digitimes.

According to their sources, ODM Pegatron is seeing robust demand for notebooks, with both Microsoft and Asustek Computer placing keen orders for the first quarter to satisfy increasing demand from the stay-at-home economy.

Acer CEO Jason Chen similarly expected shipments for notebooks and related accessories to grow year on year in 2021.

Huawei is also expected to increase its focus on the laptop market, after still being restricted in the smartphone market due to lack of access to the Google Play Store, which limits their opportunities outside of China.

PC OEMs are however having their ambitions curtailed by component shortages with the processor shortages expected to get worse before they got better.

One of the causes of the problem is the lack of foundry support for 8-inch chip wafers, according to Acer’s  Chen.

The Biden administration has promised to take “aggressive steps” to tackle the global shortage of processors by working with business and trade partners to identify the worst choke points in supply chains and creat a “strategy” to prevent future bottlenecks.