X
Tech

​Traditional PC sales continue to slide

But Windows 10 rollouts may help to boost the market next year.
Written by Steve Ranger, Global News Director
old-pcs-jpg.jpg
hroephoto, Getty Images/iStockphoto

Sales of traditional PCs continue to decline, although the overall PC market is likely to grow slightly next year.

Traditional PC shipments are forecast to drop by nearly eight percent this year, and another 4.4 percent in 2018, predicts analyst firm Gartner. Which means that, by 2019, 16 million fewer traditional PCs and notebooks will be sold than were shipped this year.

However, much of this will be offset by the rise in spending on high-end notebooks like Microsoft's Surface and Apple's MacBook, so that the overall PC market will by 2019 be at pretty much the same level it was last year.

Tablets -- defined by Gartner as basic and utility ultramobile devices -- will also decline over the period to 2019.

gartnerdevicesoctober.png
Image: Gartner

But despite the declines in traditional PC sales, Gartner said it was a misconception that everyone has gone mobile, noting that its own research found that users depend just as much on PCs or tablets as they do on smartphones. One big difference between smartphones and PCs is that people are replacing their handsets much more regularly.

Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner Atwal said: "Users holding onto their PCs for longer remains a major issue for the PC market. In contrast, users continue to replace their smartphone quite frequently."

But Garnter said business PC shipments could return to growth by the end of this year, driven by faster Windows 10 replacement in many regions -- especially in Western Europe.

"Despite the fact that prices have been rising due to higher component costs, Windows 10 replacements have kept the PC market relatively stable through 2017," said Atwal. "We estimate that the PC market (desk-based, notebook and ultramobiles) is set to return to 0.8 percent growth in 2018," he continued. According to Gartner, this trend would be driven by growth in Russia and China.

Editorial standards