Technology analyst firm Gartner is predicting that of shipments of notebooks and desktop PCs will continue to decline into 2015. From 2013 to 2014 a drop of 5.4 percent is expected, slowing very slightly to 5.3 percent moving into 2015. With the gradual move to mobile and multi-function devices, this should perhaps come a little surprise — and it follows that shipments of tablets, mobiles and ultramobiles are set to jump.
The rise of the humble mobile phone continues apace. Between 2013 and 2014, a rise of 3.1 percent is expected, while from 2014 to 2015 this rise increases to 4.5 percent. At this point shipment numbers are expected to stand at approaching 2 billion units, up from 1.8 billion in 2013. Things are looking similarly rosy for tablet manufacturers. Between 2013 and 2014, shipments will jump by 23.9 percent, and then by a further 25.2 percent by the end of 2015.
The emerging hybrid and clamshell market is set to explode in the coming 18 months. In 2013 shipment figures were fairly low at just under 3 million units. By the end of 2014, there will celebrations all round as shipments jump by an incredible 80.5 percent to 5.3 million units. Growth is predicted to slow through 2015, but by the end of the year a further 42 percent increase in shipment will take the number all the way up to 7.6 million units.
So it is the mobile market that is set to boom, but the desktop market is still looking healthy. There are not exactly many signs of a full recovery at the moment, but unit shipment decreases are slowing down. Microsoft will be smiling at the prediction that not only will shipments of Windows device increase by 12 percent from 2014 to 2015, but the Windows Phone userbase is set to rocket to 10 percent by 2018.