Light at the end of the PC tunnel - analyst

Analysts predict upturn in PC market next year, but 2018 to remain plagued by components shortages

The PC market will end a seven-year growth drought in 2019 as Windows 10 adoption increases, according to Canalys.

The analyst claims that a "slight recovery" next year will see shipments of desktops, notebooks and two-in-ones edge up 0.3 per cent.

Canalys chief analyst Alastair Edwards said: "Windows 10 refresh will continue to be the main driver of commercial demands for PCs in 2019.

"This will be buoyed by strong economic performance and business spend in the US, the largest PC market in the world, as well as a continued global push to upgrade on the back of heightened IT security concerns.

"Furthermore, 2019 is likely to bring about an easing of component supply constraints that have recently plagued the industry. Intel and its partners have admitted that slight supply of 14-nanometer processors will delay PC shipments this year, while DRAM shortages will start to ease towards the end of 2018, with the effects to be felt next year."

Concerns over supply chain issues have been well documented, with analyst Trendforce claiming that Intel's "insufficient supply" of 14-nanometer CPUs will have a negative impact on the market for the rest of this year.

JP Morgan also claimed that Intel's production problems will affect sales for PC vendors over the Christmas period, with Q4 set to be the hardest-hit quarter of this particular shortage.

Channel success

Despite the concerts for vendors, Canalys said that the channel will see the success it has found with Windows, both through sales and services, continue for a period of time.

However, it warned that this will not last forever, claiming that the spell could come to an end in the first half of next year.

Canalys added that the most "successful partners" will be the ones that build out managed desktop and subscription services.

This trend has been supported by two recent vendor announcements, with both Microsoft and HP Inc launching desktop-as-a-service offerings.