A 30% spike in denand for tablets and notebooks to supply home workers and students has caused European retailers and distributors to run out of stock, reports IDC.

“Disruption to the supply chain in China following the lockdown in Wuhan over the Chinese New Year cut deliveries into the European market by approximately 15%–20% in the first quarter,” says IDC’s Malini Paul, “more than 90% of the portable PCs and tablets imported into Europe are manufactured and assembled in China.”

“As we look into the second quarter, we see the production sector in China is largely back on its feet but disrupted international logistics and border closures in Europe are contributing to extended delivery lead times,” said Malini.

IDC forecasts that the personal computing devices (PCD) sector will not suffer as much from the rapid contraction in economic performance as many other sectors, as it is key to productivity from home for so many workers.

For Western Europe, the current IDC “probable” scenario at the end of March for 2020 full year in dollar terms is a fall in the market of only 5% for PCD; in Central and Eastern Europe the drop may be marginally higher.