Increasing PC prices will lead to flat growth of global device shipments in 2018: Gartner

Mobile phone sales declined 8.7 percent in 2017 to 428 million units, but are estimated to grow 3.3 percent in 2018, representing 23 percent of total mobile phone sales this year

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According to IT research firm Gartner, PC and tablet market is estimated to decline 1.2 percent in 2018, while the mobile phone market is on pace to record an increase of 1.4 percent.

 
Increasing PC prices will lead to flat growth in 2018

The PC market is still hindered by the undersupply of the DRAM market for all of 2018, due to the lack of new wafer capacity coming online.

 

As a result, PC vendors will continue to increase their prices throughout 2018," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "Larger screens and more graphics boards also mean rising costs, adding to the bill of hardware materials for businesses and household buyers."

The report also pointed out that the PC market is price-sensitive, business demand is migrating to high-end PCs such as ultra-mobile premium devices that generate higher value. Gartner estimates shipments of ultra-mobile premium units to increase by 12 percent in 2018.

Gartner said: "The next major shift in the PC market will be marked by the end of support for Windows 7 in January 2020."

"It is becoming paramount for businesses to migrate to Windows 10 as soon as possible, and certainly by the end of 2019," said Atwal.

North America kicked off the first Windows 10 migration phase in 2015 and will complete around 2019. Western Europe is increasing its adoption in 2018.

However, in China, Japan, and other emerging regions, migration plans are shifting from 2018 to 2019 as they continue to prepare for inherent complications in changing process and procedures for Windows as a service.

In China, mobile phone sales declined 8.7 percent in 2017 to 428 million units, but are estimated to grow 3.3 percent in 2018, representing 23 percent of total mobile phone sales this year.

Furthermore, the traditional PC market in China is on pace to decline 1.7 percent to 38.5 million shipments in 2018, representing 21 percent of global traditional PC shipments. The drop will come despite China being business-dependent, with two-thirds of PC shipments coming from this segment.

"The downward trend that China is experiencing is undoubtedly affecting the worldwide device market," Atwal further said."

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