Credit: ID 14132103 © Katarzyna Zwolska | Dreamstime
This year's global PC market isn’t expected to meet 2019’s growth due to disruptions across various markets and vendors not meeting the demand of new technologies.
Over 2019, the global PC market, consisting of desktops, notebooks and workstations, grew by 2.7 per cent to 268.1 million units shipped, according to Canalys data.
This was the first full year of growth recorded in eight years.
The growth was largely attributed to vendors Lenovo, HP and Dell growing by 8.6 per cent, 4.7 per cent and 5.3 per cent to 64.8 million, 63 million and 46.5 million PCs shipped, respectively, representing a combined market share of 66 per cent.
However, 2019's growth is predicted to not continue through to 2020 with the underperformance of the US, Japan and India markets, the uncertainty around the ongoing attempted takeover of HP by Xerox and the consumer excitement surrounding 5G connectivity and foldable display devices, according to Rushabh Doshi, research director at Canalys.
“Foldables suffer from a serious lack of use-cases, and demand is unlikely to grow unless second or third-generation devices can prove durability,” Doshi said. “5G on the other hand, needs ecosystem readiness from network operators and cloud providers to justify the value offering of these devices.”
“Mainstream adoption of 5G and foldable displays is still a good two to three years away.”
The global PC market in 2019’s fourth quarter was called decent by Ishan Dutt, analyst at Canalys, which he considered “impressive” due to record growth in the third quarter.
“Despite supply chain issues, vendors remain bullish, especially in commercial. Intel’s continued efforts to improve supply will help maintain volume in 2020, but constraints are unlikely to ease quickly,” said Dutt.
“The upshot, however, is the upgrade opportunities OEMs have with SMBs who have delayed refreshes in anticipation of new chipsets.”
The US saw its PC market grow 7 per cent year-on-year, with the analysis firm pinning the growth on the government’s decision to delay proposed tarrifs leading to stronger than expected spending.
Within Europe, the Middle East and Africa, PC shipments saw mild growth of 2 per cent. While Brexit is likely to see product delays between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, PC shipments are expected to see a short-term boon due to distributors building up inventory.
The global PC market data released by Canalys is very similar to that of those released by IDC and Gartner in mid-January.
