PC Market Grows 8% This Year... Samsung Also Bets on Premium Notebooks

The First Ever Laptop Unpack Event
Online on the 28th at 11 PM
Galaxy Book Pro 360 and More
Revealing Top-Tier New Models

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2021 invitation. The image depicts the opening of a laptop.

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] As the global PC market is expected to grow by 8% this year, Samsung Electronics is making a bold move with high-end specification laptops.

Samsung Electronics will hold an online laptop unpacking event on the 28th at 11 PM (11 AM Eastern Time, USA). This is the first time that an unpacking event, which was mainly focused on flagship smartphones, is being held to unveil new laptop products.

The specific products have not been disclosed yet. Industry insiders expect Samsung Electronics to unveil new laptop models such as the Galaxy Book Pro and Pro 360. The invitation to the unpacking event features an image depicting a laptop being opened, supporting these expectations.

The Galaxy Book Pro and Book Pro 360 are successor models to the Galaxy Ion lineup and Galaxy Book Flex series, respectively, equipped with OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays. They are expected to be released in 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch sizes, respectively. In particular, the Galaxy Book Pro 360, which features a 360-degree foldable touch panel, is attracting attention and is speculated to include an S Pen.

Global PC demand surged last year due to COVID-19. Demand increased for gaming PCs, highly portable laptops, and tablet PCs. The market outlook for this year is also positive. Market research firm Canalys forecasts that global PC shipments will reach 496.8 million units this year, an 8% increase compared to the previous year. Notably, laptops and tablet PCs are expected to grow by 9.4% and 8.3%, respectively, showing higher growth rates compared to desktops (4.4%).

According to market research firm IDC for the first quarter, the global PC vendor rankings for desktops and laptops are led overwhelmingly by China's Lenovo with 20.4 million units, followed by HP (19.24 million units), Dell (12.95 million units), Apple (6.69 million units), and Acer (5.8 million units). Samsung remains outside the ranking.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.