Zero clients take off as shipments soar

Thin-client market as a whole on an upward curve, IDC figures reveal

HP and Dell consolidated their dominance of the market as thin clients continued to gain popularity in 2014's opening quarter.

IDC figures reveal that global shipments in Q1 jumped 7.1 per cent year on year in Q1 to 1.29 million. The analyst's numbers cover thin clients (which account for 97.5 per cent of units) and what it dubs terminal clients, which it characterises as "devices without a CPU or an operating system that have a direct cable connection to a PC running a multi-user operating system".

The market watcher forecasts that full-year shipments will stand at 5.7 million, a five per cent increase on 2013. By 2018 this figure is expected to swell to 7.8 million units. Rajani Singh, personal computing research analyst at IDC, claimed the market has built up a head of steam.

"After posting 14.5 per cent year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2013, the worldwide enterprise client market continued to show good momentum in the first quarter," she said. "The positive growth in the worldwide shipments was helped by strong performances in five out of the eight regional markets."

Thin-client shipments increased 8.9 per cent in Q1, claims IDC, while the much smaller terminal client market – which saw 25,540 units shipped – posted more modest growth. Zero-client devices, which do not have operating systems, now account for almost a quarter of all thin clients, up from just one in nine in the first quarter of 2013.

HP and DellWyse posted 18.5 and 19.6 per cent shipment growth, respectively, in Q1. The former holds 30.6 per cent of the market, ahead of its rival on 27 per cent.

Third-placed NComputing endured a 20.2 per cent shipment decline as its market share reversed almost three points to 8.3 per cent. Igel, which swooped into fourth, shipped 51.7 per cent more devices than in the prior-year quarter to give it a 5.5 per cent slice of the global market.

Centerm completed the top five, although its shipments fell 22.7 per cent. The Chinese firm has seen its market share slip almost two points in the past year to its Q1 level of 4.7 per cent.