Full-year global device shipments will edge down nearly 1% on 2014, driven by longer replacement cycles, predicted Gartner this week.
The research firm expects shipments of PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones to reach 2.40 billion this year, down from 2.42 billion last year. In July, Gartner predicted worldwide device shipments would grow by 1.5% in 2015 to 2.45 billion.
All categories of device will see declines, the company said, with the exception of mobile handsets. Mobile shipments will increase to 1.91 billion from 1.88 billion in 2014.
"Replacement activity across all types of devices has increased," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, in a statement on Wednesday. "Users are extending the lifetime of their devices, or deciding not to replace their devices at all."
Shipments of desktop and laptop PCs are forecast to shrink 10.8% to 247 million this year. So-called ‘ultra mobile’ computing devices, which includes tablets, will see shipments decline to 199 million from 226 million.
"The tablet market is coming under increasing pressure," said Gartner research director Annette Zimmermann. "Users of tablets with a screen size between seven and eight inches are increasingly not replacing their devices."
What’s more, a survey of users in the U.K., U.S., France, China, Brazil, and India found that 44% of tablet owners plan to replace their tablet with a different type of device.
