According to a new report from Gartner, manufacturers are expected ships around 2.5 billion devices this year, a 1.5 percent increase compared to last year, slightly down from the previous quarter’s forecast of 2.8 percent growth. This figure includes the combined shipments of devices, including PCs, tablets, mobile phones and ultramobiles. One of the main reasons for the decline is said to be the devaluation of the local currency against the dollar, mainly in Western Europe, Russia and Japan.
“Our forecast for unit shipment growth for all devices in 2015 has dropped by 1.3 percentage points from last quarter’s estimate,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “This was partly due to a continued slowdown in PC purchases in Western Europe, Russia and Japan in particular, largely due to price increases resulting from local currency devaluation against the dollar.”
As per the figures, the PC market is expected to ship 300 million units by the end of 2015, which is a decline of 4.5 percent year on year from 311 million. The number includes everything PC related, including the Apple’s Macbook Air and other ultrabooks. Add tablets and clamshells into the figure, which are seeing a downfall as well, and the total computing market is expected to ship 514 million units, which is still a decline compared to last year’s shipments of 540 million. Windows 10 is also said to slow down demand for mobile PCs and premium ultramobiles, but things could change next year when Windows 10 becomes more mainstream.
“We do not expect the global PC market to recover until 2016,” said Mr. Atwal. “The release of Windows 10 on 29th July will contribute to a slowing professional demand for mobile PCs and premium ultramobiles in 2015, as lifetimes extend by three months. However, as suppliers and buyers adjust to new prices, Windows 10 could boost replacements during 2016.”
The numbers reveal that PC and computing market may see an increase over the next two years, but it all remains to be seen if Windows 10 can shake things up. Microsoft aims to make sure over one bilion devices are running the latest operating system in the next few years.
Coming over to the other side of the market : mobile phones. It’s increasing year-on-year, but it’s growth rate is expected to slow down to 3.3 percent growth in 2015. Nontheless, manufacturers are expected to ship over 1.9 billion devices this year, and it will continue to grow over the next few years, as per the figures released from the market research firm Gartner. The smartphone market is becoming competitve day-by-day, with manufacturers launching budget-friendly devices, especially in developing markets, not just limited to China but other regions such as India and a few more as well. Gartner says that vendors looking to imrpove their performance should expand outside China as well.
“Vendors looking to grow their performance in the global smartphone market will be challenged to quickly enhance their expansion into emerging markets outside of China, where we still witness a sizeable share of feature phones and an opportunity for double-digit smartphone growth,” said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner.
It remains to be seen whether their estimates are correct or not. As for Microsoft, they have to focus on making sure that Windows 10 is a success and is adopted more than Windows 8/8.1.
