According to Gartner, global device (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) shipments are set to reach 1.9 billion units in 2020, a decline by -13.6% brought about by the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic.
“The forecasted decline in the PC market in particular could have been much worse,” the analyst says. “However, government lockdowns due to Covid-19 forced businesses and schools to enable millions of people to work from home and increase spending on new notebooks, Chromebooks and tablets for those workers. Education and government establishments also increased spending on those devices to facilitate e-learning.”
PC shipments are forecast to decline by -10.5% in 2020, while shipments of notebooks, tablets and Chromecasts should decline flower than the overall PC market. The reason is more employees working from home, leading to many IT departments to shift to more notebooks, tablets and Chrome devices for work. in addition, businesses need to create flexible business continuity plans, leading business notebooks to displayce desktop PCs through 2021 and 2022.
Mobile phone shipments are set to drop by -14.6% in 2020, with smartphones see a slightly slower -13.7% decline to total 1.3bn units. The use of mobile phones is currently on the increase as people use such devices to communicate with colleagues, work partners, friends and families during the lockdowns, but reduced disposable income leads to fewer consumers upgrading their phones. As a result, Gartner says, phone lifetimesa re up from 2.5 years in 2018 to 2.7 years in 2020.
5G phones were supposed to drive phone replacements, but the delayed delivery of flagship 5G phones, combined with a lack of geographical coverage and the increasing costs of 5G contracts will delay such upgrades. As such, Gartner predicts 5G phones will make just 11% of total 2020 mobile phone shipments.
Go Gartner Forecast: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones WW 2018-2024 April 2020 Update
