Device Shipments Will Decline 14 Percent in 2020 Due to Coronavirus Impact

Global shipments of devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) are on pace to decline 13.6% in 2020, totaling 1.9 billion units, according to Gartner.

“The forecasted decline in the PC market in particular could have been much worse,“ said Ranjit Atwal, senior research director at Gartner. “However, 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.“

In 2020, PC shipments are expected to decline 10.5%. Shipments of notebooks, tablets and Chromebooks are forecast to decline slower than the PC market overall in 2020. Gartner said that 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to 30% pre-pandemic. Overall, the work from home trend will make IT departments shift to more notebooks, tablets and Chrome devices for work.

Shipments of total mobile phones are forecast to decline 14.6% in 2020, while smartphone shipments will achieve a slightly slower decline of 13.7% year over year to total 1.3 billion units in 2020. Affordable 5G phones were expected to be the catalyst to increase phone replacements, but it will not be the case. 5G phones are now forecast to represent only 11% of total mobile phone shipments in 2020. Overall, spending on 5G phones will be impacted in most regions apart from China, where continued investment in 5G infrastructure is expected, allowing providers in China to effectively market 5G phones.