NComputing slides down thin-client rankings says IDC

Dell retakes top spot in thin-client table according to latest report from IDC

NComputing, "hampered by its financial troubles", has slid down the thin-client league table, according to the latest figures from IDC.

The vendor, which was sold to ZeroDesktop for an undisclosed sum last month, dropped from third in Q4 2013, to fifth in Q4 2014 according to IDC's Worldwide Enterprise Client Device Unit Shipments ranking.

NComputing saw its market share drop from 14.8 per cent over the same period, while its shipments fell by 69.9 per cent to 72,245. IDC said the "vendor faced conservative uptake from its channels".

Dell knocked HP off the top spot in the rankings, with a 27.2 per cent share of the market, after shipments grew 12 per cent annually to 385,566 in Q4 2014. IDC attributed this growth to "the result of some key shipments in the financial sector".

HP, coming in second, saw a 17.1 per cent annual drop in shipments in Q4, prompting its share to slide from 26.8 per cent in Q4 2013 to 25.4 per cent a year later.

Overall, shipments in the global thin-client market declined by 12.5 per cent annually to 1.42 million in Q4 2014.

Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC, said: "Although currency impacts and a faster-than-expected slowing of momentum from migrations earlier in the year resulted in a fourth quarter that was less than forecast, more and more IT decision makers are becoming increasingly comfortable with the concept and requirements of a successful desktop virtualisation deployment, leading IDC to project steady growth ahead."