Worldwide shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones will reach 2.16 billion units in 2020, an increase of 0.9% from 2019, according to research firm Gartner.
2020 will witness a slight market recovery, research director Ranjit Atwal said. “Increased availability of 5G handsets will boost mobile phone replacements, which will lead global device shipments to return to growth in 2020.”
The worldwide mobile phone market is on course to grow by 1.7% in 2020, following a 2% decline in 2019.Gartner estimates that 5G models will account for 12% of mobile phone shipments in 2020, and reach 43% by 2022.
“From 2020, Gartner expects an increase in 5G phone adoption as prices decrease, 5G service coverage increases and users have better experiences with 5G phones. The market will experience a further increase in 2023, when 5G handsets will account for over 50% of the mobile phones shipped,” Atwal said.
After experiencing a return to growth in 2019, PC shipment are forecast to decline in 2020 and beyond, affected by the end of migration to Windows 10. Gartner estimates that one billion PCs will have migrated to Windows 10 through 2020, around 80% of all PCs in use.
“The PC market’s future is unpredictable because there will not be a Windows 11. Instead, Windows 10 will be upgraded systematically through regular updates and as a result, peaks in PC hardware upgrade cycles driven by an entire Windows OS upgrade will end,” he said.