Personal computers are once again shipping after an earlier pandemic

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, plenty of folks needed to buy computers — but they might've had a hard time getting one. Now, according to at least one market analysis firm, that problem is resolving itself.

Canalys released its third quarter personal computer sales report on Friday with some welcome news for companies like Lenovo and Acer: People are getting PCs again. To be specific, 79.2 million units were shipped globally for a 12.7 percent year-over-year increase from the same period in 2019.

Lenovo led the pack with more than 19 million units shipped, while HP came in just behind with with 18.6 million shipments. Dell was in a somewhat distant third place with 11 million units and nobody else crossed the 10 million unit threshold.

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The fact that personal computer shipments are soaring is significant because there was a pretty serious shortage earlier this year, especially for laptops. More people needed computers on an emergency basis than usual, especially educators and students who were forced to switch suddenly to virtual learning.

With school starting back up during the past few months, at least in the United States, it's no surprise that demand for computers kept rising. At least now it seems like people can actually get them.