Worldwide combined shipment of devices to reach 2.4 billion this year

The combined shipments worldwide of PCs, tablets and mobile phones will hit 2.4 billion units in total this year.

According to Gartner, this was an 9% increase from last year and shipments would continue to grow to more than 2.9 billion units in 2017.  However, the mix of devices that made up this total would change significantly over this period, the company said.

Low cost tablets driving shift away from PCs

The growth in lower priced tablets had sped up the shift from PCs to tablets, Gartner said.  Research vice president Carolina Milanesi said while there were still some people who had both, most would be happy with using a tablet as their main computing device.

“As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis.”

This would see a decline in the the PC market, including notebooks and desk devices, of 7.6% in 2013.  Moreover, this was not a temporary trend but would be a reflection of a long-term change in behaviour, Gartner said.  Ultramobiles, or small mobile-like notebooks, would assuage this a little, with a 3.5% decline in sales of these and traditional PCs in 2013.

The break down included PC shipments of 315 million this year, compared with 197 million tablet devices shipped and just under 1.9 billion mobile phones, with total device shipments or 2.41 billion.  By 22013, this would change to PC shipments of 302 million units, 266 million tablet units and 1.95 billion mobile phones.  By 2017, this would change to 272 million PC units, 468 million tablet units and 2.13 bilion  mobile phones.

Tablets to explode….sales-wise

Worldwide tablet shipments were forecast to explode in 2013, increasing by almost 70% to 197 million units, compared with 116 million last year.

This was driven by lower prices, variety, cloud connection and consumer love of apps, Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal said.

“Growth in the tablet segment will not be limited to mature markets alone. Users in emerging markets who are looking for a companion to their mobile phone will increasingly choose a tablet as their first computing device and not a PC.”

Android would continue to be the dominant operating system in the device market, thanks in part to strong growth in the smartphone market, Gartner said.  In 2013, 860, 937 devices running Android would be sold, compared with 497, 082 last year and 1,468,619 in 2017.

Competition for second place would be between Apple and Microsoft Windows, with more than 293 million devices running iOS or MacOS shipping this year, compared with more than 354 million devices running Windows.  In 2014 this would be more than 359 million Apple devices and just over 504 million in 2017, versus just under 398 million Windows devices in 2014 and just under 571 million in 2017.

Interestingly, RIM was predicted to decline from 2013 on out, with 31 million units shipped this year, falling to 27 million in 2014 and 24 million by 2017.

Note: Devices include notebooks and desk-based PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones.

Smartphones more affordable

Smartphones were also becoming more affordable, Gartner said, with 1 billion of the 1.875 billion mobile phones sold this year being smartphones, compared with 675 million last year.

The shift towards mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, away from PCs, would affect software and chipset architecture as well, as consumers used apps and cloud computing more and more, Milanesi said.