Gartner: Worldwide PC and smartphone shipments to decline again

Gartner expects worldwide combined shipments for PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones to decline 3% in 2016. According to Gartner this will mark the second consecutive year of decline. The global devices market fell by 0.75 per cent in 2015.

Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner:

"The global devices market is not on pace to return to single-digit growth soon. Growth is on pace to remain flat during the next five years. All segments are expected to decline in 2016, except for premium ultramobiles and utility mobile phones (entry level phones), which are expected to show single-digit growth this year. We expect premium ultramobiles will start benefiting from the collective performance and integration of the latest Intel CPU platform and Windows 10."

The ultramobile premium category includes devices such as Microsoft's Windows 10 Intel x86 products and Apple's MacBook Air, while the ultramobile basic and utility tablets category includes devices such as, iPad, iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, Amazon Fire HD, Lenovo Yoga Tab 3, Acer Iconia One.

For the smartphone segment Gartner predicts mobile phone shipments which are on pace to decline 1.6 per cent in 2016. The smartphone segment continues to grow, but more slowly than in previous years, and is expected to reach 1.5 billion units in 2016. The Android market will continue to be bolstered by Chinese vendors offering more affordable premium devices.

Despite the availability of the iPhone 7, Gartner expects a weaker year-over-year volume performance from Apple in 2016, as volumes stabilise after a very strong 2015. As a result, Gartner expects total smartphone market to only increase 4.5 per cent with premium smartphones declining 1.1 per cent in 2016.

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