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Global PC market in downward spiral

Cape Town - Computers are expected to experience decline in 2015, but will recover once the latest version of Windows becomes available, says an industry watcher.

According to Gartner, PCs will decline by 4.5% to 300 million units in 2015, owing to the value of the dollar and the end of Windows XP migration, among other factors.

"We do not expect the global PC market to recover until 2016," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

He said that the imminent release of Windows 10 should result in a spike in the PC market.

"The release of Windows 10 on 29th July will contribute to a slowing professional demand for mobile PCs and premium ultra mobiles in 2015, as lifetimes extend by three months. However, as suppliers and buyers adjust to new prices, Windows 10 could boost replacements during 2016."

Tablets struggle

Gartner data shows that PCs fell from 277 million units in 2014 to an expected 251 million units by the end of this year. Despite the increase in ultra mobiles to 89 million units by 2017, traditional PCs will continue their downward spiral to 233 million.

Tablets will experience little growth, said Gartner. The market will expand from 214 million this year to 244 million in 2017.

Smaller tablets are expected to suffer as people migrate to larger screen smartphones. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)

"The tablet market is hit by fewer new buyers, extended life cycles and little innovation to encourage new purchases," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner.

"The tablet has become a 'nice to have' device, and there is no real need for an upgrade as regularly as for the phone," she added though the company expects half of all households in mature markets to have a tablet by 2016.

Smaller tablets are also seeing market share evaporating as consumers increasingly spend more time on phablets.

The shift to smartphones will see an increase in the market from 1.8 billion to two billion devices globally by 2017.

However, people are spending less money on purchasing new smartphones as the market reaches near saturation.

China slowdown

"The global market has been affected by a weaker performance in China. We have witnessed fewer and fewer first time buyers in China, a sign that the mobile phone market in there is reaching saturation," said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner.

China has been seen as the engine of growth for mobile phone manufactures and companies like Huawei, Xiaomi, Hisense and others have seen Chinese success place them on the global stage.

"Vendors in China will have to win replacement buyers and improve the appeal of their premium offerings to attract upgrades, if they want to maintain or increase their market share," said Zimmermann.

She added that brands should tap emerging markets outside China as lucrative sources of revenue.

"Vendors looking to grow their performance in the global smartphone market will be challenged to quickly enhance their expansion into emerging markets outside of China, where we still witness a sizeable share of feature phones and an opportunity for double-digit smartphone growth."


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