Gartner reports global device-- PCs, tablets and mobile phones-- shipments are set to total 2.28 billion in 2018, an increase of just 0.9%, with PC and tablet shipments dropping by -1.2% and mobile phones growing by 1.4%.
"The PC market is still hindered by the undersupply of the DRAM market for all of 2018, due to the lack of new wafer capacity coming online. As a result, PC vendors will continue to increase their prices throughout 2018," the analyst points out. "Larger screens and more graphic boards also mean rising costs, adding to the bill of hardware materials for businesses and household buyers."
Interestingly, while the PC market remains price-sensitive, Gartner points out a current trend of business demand shifting to high-end PCs such as ultramobile premium devices. As such, ultramobile premium shipments are forecast to increase by 12% in 2018. Another upcoming PC market shift is the January 2020 end of Windows 7 support, bringing about further Windows 10 adoption in W. Europe in 2018. Emerging regions will follow in 2019 as they prepare for Windows as a service.
Another factor hitting the global device market is China-- the Chinese market accounts for over 20% of overall device spending, and any changes lead to "significant" ripple effect on a global level. For instance, 2017 Chinese mobile phone sales are down by -8.7%, but should grow by 3.3% in 2018 to make 23% of the segment.
Gartner forecasts the traditional PC market in China will decline by -1.7% to 38.5m shipments in 2018, making 21% of global PC shipments. The drop comes despite China being business-dependent, with over 66% of shipments coming from the segment. Thus it should be interesting to follow the H2 2018 Chinese Windows 10 rollout.
Go Gartner Forecast PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones WW 2016-2022 Q2 2018 Update
