Worldwide smartphone shipments to grow by just 7 percent by end of 2016

Gartner forecasting no significant growths in the PC, notebook, or smartphone markets until at least 2018.

Ronald Tiefenthäler/ Allen Ngo, 04/01/2016

IT research and advisory firm Gartner is anticipating the growth of global smartphone shipments to slow to only 7 percent this year. As a result, the firm is expecting sales of about 1.943 billion smartphones by the end of 2016 representing an uptick of just 1.36 percent YoY.

The global market for desktops, notebooks, ultra-mobiles and smartphones in general will be even flatter this year with an estimated 2.416 billion units shipped by the end of 2016 compared to 2.401 billion in 2015 to represent a growth of just 0.62 percent. Both consumer spending and the US Dollar will decline each year by an estimated 1.6 percent for the next few years according to the source.

Research Director at Gartner Ranjit Atwal claims that the era of double-digit growth rates for smartphones is over. Poor economic conditions are expected to have a greater impact on smartphone sales while the growth of the smartphone market in both China and the US has slowed to just 0.7 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

As for the desktop and notebook market, the firm is predicting just 284 million devices shipped by the end of this year, which would be an all time low. The outlook is only a little better for 2017 with an expected 296 million units shipped representing an increase of 4.2 percent. Meanwhile, the ultra-mobile (tablet) market will continue to stagnate unless if upcoming Intel-based Windows 10 devices and Apple's iPads can rejuvenate sales.