PC, tablet and mobile sales to grow 0.9% in 2020

Up to 2.16 billion PCs, tablets and mobile phones are expected to ship this year, in what Gartner is calling a “slight market recovery”.

The total represents only a 0.9% increase from 2019, when 2.15 billion units shipped globally, according to Gartner.

The “slight recovery” will be at least partly driven by an increase in 5G handset availability, with 5G models likely to account for 12% of mobile phone shipments this year, Gartner and its Senior Director Analyst, Ranjit Atwal, said.

“From 2020, Gartner expects an increase in 5G phone adoption as prices decrease, 5G service coverage increases and users have better experiences with 5G phones. The market will experience a further increase in 2023, when 5G handsets will account for over 50% of the mobile phones shipped,” Atwal said.

Meanwhile, PC shipments are projected to decline in 2020 and beyond as users finish their migration to Windows 10. 

Despite forecasting a decrease in professional PC replacements, Gartner is optimistic there will be replacement opportunities in 2020, suggesting initiatives like the Chinese government’s locally manufactured “secure and reliable PC” scheme, which stalled in 2019, will gain momentum this year. 

“In addition, there is a ‘long tail’ of upgrades from small and midsize businesses across emerging regions as they react to Microsoft’s withdrawal of support for Windows 7 on 14 January 2020,” Gartner said.

The company believes that 2020 will see one billion PCs — around 80% of all PCs in use — migrate to Windows 10.

“The PC market’s future is unpredictable because there will not be a Windows 11. Instead, Windows 10 will be upgraded systematically through regular updates,” Atwal said.

“As a result, peaks in PC hardware upgrade cycles driven by an entire Windows OS upgrade will end.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Jose Luis Stephens