While India and similar economies are growing and the number of devices sold are increasing everyday, the overall growth is actually on a decline. According to Gartner, an American research and advisory firm, the global device shipments have declined second year in a row.
Gartner, Inc. said worldwide combined shipments for devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) are expected to decline 3 percent in 2016. This will mark the second consecutive year of decline. The global devices market fell by 0.75 percent in 2015, much less than that of 2016 forecast.
“The global devices market is not on pace to return to single-digit growth soon. “We expect premium ultramobiles will start benefiting from the collective performance and integration of the latest Intel CPU platform and Windows 10,” said Ranjit Atwal, Research Director at Gartner.
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.
Ultramobile category is the one with midsize gadgets basic and utility tablets and surprisingly this category won’t see a decline, even though smartphones are becoming more common, making tablet PCs and tablet quite obsolete.
Worldwide Devices Shipments by Device Type, 2015-2018 (Millions of Units)
|
Device Type |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
|
Traditional PCs (Desk-Based and Notebook) |
244 |
216 |
205 |
199 |
|
Ultramobiles (Premium) |
44 |
49 |
61 |
75 |
|
PC Market |
288 |
265 |
266 |
274 |
|
Ultramobiles (Basic and Utility) |
196 |
177 |
173 |
173 |
|
Computing Devices Market |
484 |
442 |
439 |
447 |
|
Mobile Phones |
1,917 |
1,887 |
1,910 |
1,933 |
|
Total Devices Market |
2,401 |
2,329 |
2,349 |
2,380 |
What’s the forecast till 2018?
Mobile shipments will see a decline of 1.6% in 2016, but will grow back in 2017. However, overall global shipments will see a decline of 3% in 2016. In 2017 and 2018, the growth rate will be close to 0.9% which shows a pretty flat graph.
Ultramobile basic category will not see much growth, but the premium segment, that includes iPads, is expected to grow as much as 23% in 2018. Traditional PCs are on the decline, adding a lot of weightage to the overall global shipment decline.
Total mobile phone shipments are on pace to decline 1.6 percent in 2016. The smartphone segment continues to grow, albeit more slowly than in previous years, and is expected to reach 1.5 billion units in 2016. “This is no surprise; the smartphone market is maturing, and reaching global saturation with phones that are increasingly capable and remain good enough for longer,” said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner.
The Android smartphone shipments are increasing, thanks to low-cost and budget smartphones available from the Chinese and Indian manufacturers. However, a few launches like the anniversary edition iPhone in 2017 will drive volumes for that year, and may show overall growth in shipments.
Overall, the globe seems to have been growing at an average pace now, as technology becomes more advanced and compact. More and more people are moving to smarter technology, but abandoning older ones at the same time, creating a sales equilibrium.
Source: Gartner
