A new report is out, showing predictions for the global tablet, PC and smartphone sales in 2019. All of them are expected to stabilize this year, with around 2.21 billion personal computer such as that custom gaming pc, tablet and smartphone devices sold worldwide in 2019, according to Gartner.
The number is a slight increase of 0.5% compared to 2018. The trend should also stay rather tablet till 2021. 2019 is also a year for smartphone drops, actually the third consecutive year of drops. Garnet expects 1.802 billion phones to be sold, compared to the 1.811 billion of 2018 (a 0.5% drop). A recovery will be felt in 2020, with a 1.2% increase, while in 2021 there will be a drop of 1.4%.
Tablets are also expected to be on a decline, with the 149.5 million units from 2018 turning into 143.7 million in 2021. PCs will follow the same pattern and go from 259.7 million machines sold in 2018 to 254.9 million in 2021. The premium computers sector will remain dynamic, with a growth of 23.8% over the next 3 years.
The total sales number are expected to be stable around 2.2 billion units over the next few years. As reported here, foldables will stay a niche till 2023, while laptops may just make a comeback, thanks to the gaming segment most of all.
One thing I can promise you can I can bet on is the fact that PC upgrade cycles will become less and less relevant, as people give up PCs alltogether instead of upgrading them. New format devices will take their place.
