Global shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones are expected to decline 13.6% in 2020, according to the latest forecast from global research group Gartner.
However, the forecasted slowdown in the PC market in particular could have been much worse, Gartner research director, Ranjit Atwal said, with the work from home trend saving it from collapse.
“Government lockdowns due to COVID-19 forced businesses and schools to enable millions of people to work from home and increase spending on new notebooks, Chromebooks and tablets for those workers. Education and government establishments also increased spending on those devices to facilitate e-learning,” he said.
In 2020, PC shipments are expected to decline 10.5%, while notebooks, tablets and Chromebooks are forecast to decrease at a slower pace.
According to Gartner, working from home will fuel demand for more versatile laptops with 48% of employees more like to work remotely, compared to 30% pre-pandemic. “This will make IT departments shift to more notebooks, tablets and Chrome devices for work, and combined with businesses required to create flexible business continuity plans will make business notebooks displace desk-based PCs through 2021 and 2022,” Atwal said.
Shipments of total mobile phones are also forecast to fall 14.6% in 2020, while smartphone shipments will achieve a slightly slower decline of 13.7%, as phone lifetimes extend from 2.5 years in 2018 to 2.7 years in 2020.
In 2020 affordable 5G phones were expected to be the catalyst to increase phone replacements, but this will not be the case now with 5G phones now forecast to represent only 11% of total mobile phone shipments in 2020.
According to Gartner research VP Annette Zimmerman the delayed delivery of some 5G flagship phones will be an ongoing issue. “The lack of 5G geographical coverage, along with the increasing cost of a 5G phone contract will impact the choice of a 5G phone,” she said.
Overall, spending on 5G phones will be impacted in most regions apart from China, where continued investment in 5G infrastructure is expected to allow providers to effectively market 5G phones.