Beancounters at IDC have warned that PC and tablet shipments will suffer into 2023.
IDC projects global shipments of traditional PCs to decline 12.8 percent in 2022 to 205.3 million units and table shipments to drop 6.8 percent to 158.8 million units. IDC blamed inflation, a weakening economy and the pandemic-fuelled surge in tech buying over the last two years for the demand drop.
The firm also expects further declines in 2023 as consumer demand slows and education demand drops off – enterprise purchasing, the firm says, will also suffer because of macroeconomic conditions. The combined market for PCs and tablets is expected to decline 2.6 percent in 2023 before rising again in 2024.
IDC Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers research manager Jitish Ubrani said: “Long-term demand will be driven by a slow economic recovery combined with an enterprise hardware refresh as support for Windows 10 nears its end. Educational deployments and hybrid work are also expected to become a mainstay driving additional volumes.”
Linn Huang, research vice president at IDC’s Devices and Displays, said in a statement: “With economic headwinds gaining speed, we expect worsening consumer sentiment to result in further consumer market contractions over the next six quarters. Economic recovery in time for the next major refresh cycle could propel some growth in the outer years of our forecast.”
Huang added: “Though volumes won’t hit pandemic peaks, we expect the consumer market to drive towards more premium ends of the market.”
