Gartner Says Worldwide Device Shipments Will Increase 2.1 Percent in 2018

Gartner Says Worldwide Device Shipments
Will Increase 2.1 Percent in 2018

SINGAPORE, January 29,
2018 — Worldwide shipments of devices — PCs,
tablets and mobile phones — totaled 2.28 billion units in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. Shipments are on course to reach 2.32
billion units in 2018, an increase of 2.1 percent.

Two markets will drive overall growth in
device shipments in 2018. First is the mobile phone market, led by the high-end
smartphone segment. Second is the premium ultramobile market, where thin and
light Apple and Microsoft Windows 10 devices are stimulating higher demand.

“Consumers have many technologies to choose
from, which poses two main challenges for vendors. The first is to compete for wallet share, given how many devices
consumers own. The second is to deliver value and maintain relevance — to offer
the right device to the right audience,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “We will see more buyers focusing on value,
rather than just price, and therefore considering higher-priced devices.”

PC Market Will Be Flat
in 2018

Gartner forecasts that
shipments of traditional PCs will decline by 5.4 percent in 2018 (see Table 1),
with notebooks showing the steepest decline (6.8 percent). The premium
ultramobile market will be the only PC segment to achieve growth in 2018,
without which the overall PC market would decline.

“DRAM costs have
doubled since June 2016, and PC providers have increased PC prices since the
first half of 2017,” added Mr. Atwal. “This trend is likely to continue into
2018, until DRAM cost trends reverse.”

Table 1

Worldwide Device
Shipments by Device Type, 2016-2019 (Millions of Units)

Source: Gartner
(January 2018)

By 2021, 9 Percent of
Smartphones Sold Will Support 5G

Gartner forecasts that
mobile phone shipments will increase by 2.6 percent in 2018, with the total
amounting to 1.9 billion units. In 2018, smartphone sales will grow by 6.2
percent, to represent 87 percent of mobile phone sales. “We expect Apple
smartphone sales to grow by more than the market average in 2018, with the
launch of new models fueling stronger replacement cycles,” said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner.

In 2018, smartphone
vendors will focus on delivering more compelling personalized experiences,
via on-device (AI), virtual personal assistants and
more natural user interfaces, but also through biometrics and further
enhancements to display and camera features. We expect to see some of these
unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona.

5G
phones will reach the market in 2019, when rollouts of 5G networks will start
in select countries, such as the U.S. and South Korea. “We predict that, by 2021, 9 percent of
smartphones sold will support 5G,” said Ms. Cozza. “Overall, 5G will be a
significant driver of video and streaming services, as it will bring faster
uplinks and support new AI applications.”

More detailed analysis
is available to Gartner clients in the report “Forecast Analysis: PCs,
Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 4Q17 Update.”

About Gartner

Gartner,
Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading research and advisory company. The
company helps business leaders across all major functions in every industry and
enterprise size with the objective insights they need to make the right
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countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.