Global device shipments set to fall as replacements drop

Worldwide device shipments expected to fall by one per cent in 2015, according to Gartner

Global shipments of PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones are set to decline in 2015 amid a lack of impetus for replacements, according to Gartner.

Worldwide shipments of these devices are expected to reach 2.4 billion units in 2015, a drop of one per cent from 2014, according to the market watcher.

Within this overall contraction, the PC market will see a large decline, with shipments expected to be down 7.3 per cent year over year at 291 million units in 2015.

Tablet shipments are also on track for contraction, with shipments anticipated to be at 192 million units in 2015, a fall of 13 per cent from the previous year.

Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, said this overall fall in device shipments is driven by a lack of replacements.

"Replacement activity across all types of devices has decreased," he said. "Users are extending the lifetime of their devices, or deciding not to replace devices at all."

But Atwal was hopeful the PC market would pick up, and return to growth by 2017.

"Until the end of 2015, currency devaluation and subsequent price increases will continue to restrain the replacement of ultramobiles premium and notebooks by businesses in particular," he said.

"In 2016, we expect currency impacts to negate and while Windows 10 products on the Intel Skylake platform will increase in volumes throughout the year, Windows 10 adoption among businesses will ramp up sharply in 2017, where we expect the PC market to return to a four per cent growth."

One area of the device market which did see growth was mobile phone shipments, which Gartner expects to increase by 1.4 per cent in 2015 to 1.9 billion units. This growth has been driven by smartphones, which are set to be up 14 per cent year over year in 2015.

Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner, said: "By 2017, we estimate mobile phone shipments will reach the two billion mark, and smartphones will represent 89 per cent of the [device] market."

Overall, Gartner expects the worldwide device market to increase by 2.7 per cent in 2016 at 2.5 billion shipments.