PC market to shrink 4.9% in 2015

Global PC sales will contract by a worse-than-expected 4.9% in 2015 as changing market preferences and other factors impact demand, IDC is predicting.

The research firm has modified its previous forecast of a 3.3% decline in total shipments in 2015, but slightly raised its projections for 2016 and 2017.

IDC expects a total of 293.1 million PCs to ship during 2015, slipping to 291.4 million in 2019.

The PC market generated total revenue of $201 billion in 2014 - down 0.8% from the prior year. IDC is forecasting a further decline of 6.9% in 2015, and smaller declines in subsequent years, bringing the total value to just $175 million by 2019.

While the PC market in mature regions ended 2014 with a positive growth of 8.4% - the first growth year since 2010 - sales volumes are still expected to decline by 5.1% this year. Shipments in emerging markets meanwhile shrank 9.5% in 2014 and are on pace to fall 4.7% in 2015.

Microsoft’s decision to scale back subsidies for Windows 8.1 + Bing systems led to an inventory build-up in the fourth quarter and is expected to contribute to the decline in sales for 2015, IDC said.

The strong US dollar and the continuing shift to slim, convertible and touch-based alternative computing devices are also set to impact demand.

“Fortunately for PC makers, tablet growth has slowed. The PC ecosystem has also begun to see some fruits from efforts to narrow the divide between the PC and mobile devices in terms of both user experience and price points,” Jay Chou, IDC senior research analyst for worldwide PC trackers, said.

“Nevertheless, much more needs to be done as advances in both hardware and software are expected to benefit an ever wider spectrum of form factors, such as 2-in-1 devices that will further siphon volume from notebooks.”

Image courtesy of Intel Free Press under CC