STOCKHOLM, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Shipments of personal computers and mobile phones are expected to fall for the second straight year in 2023, with phone shipments falling to their lowest level in a decade, the IT research firm said on Tuesday. Gartner.
Mobile phone shipments are expected to fall 4% to 1.34 billion units in 2023 from 1.40 billion units in 2022, Gartner said. They amounted to 1.43 billion in 2021.
This was close to the level of shipments in 2009 when Blackberry and Nokia phones were the market leaders as Apple tried to reduce their dominance. The mobile phone market peaked in 2015 when shipments reached 1.9 billion units.
The pandemic has brought about a fundamental shift where people working from home haven’t felt the need to switch phones frequently, Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, said in an interview.
“Consumers are keeping their phones longer than expected, six to nine months, and moving from fixed to flexible contracts in the absence of meaningful new technology,” he said.
Demand for smartphones and PCs initially increased during the pandemic, but began to falter in the middle of last year.
Rising global interest rates and the cost of living have dampened demand for smartphones, hitting companies ranging from Samsung (005930.KS) to Apple (AAPL.O).
Personal computer shipments are expected to fall 6.8% this year after falling 16% in 2022, the research firm said. Lenovo (0992.HK), HP Inc (HPQ.N) and Dell (DELL.N) are the top three PC makers.
The device market slump will slow in 2023 due to expectations of a less pessimistic economic outlook throughout the year and a possible increase in consumer and business spending, Gartner said.
Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; edited by Deepa Babington
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