Microsoft recently launched Windows 10 to the public, but it looks like that won’t be enough to help increase PC shipments next year as IDC estimates PC shipments will fall by -8.7% in 2015 and not stabilize until 2017.
PC shipments aren’t the only tech item on the decline either. Tablet sales are expected to decline even faster than IDC’s previous forecast of a 3.8%. The firm currently projects tablet shipments will drop 8% in 2015, however there is a silver lining for Apple.The 2-in-1 tablet market is expected to grow 86.5% in 2015, right as Apple’s preparing to launch the iPad Pro.
Microsoft has dominated the 2-in-1 tablet market the past few years with the Surface, but the segment still hasn’t really taken off with professionals. With the iPad Pro’s introduction on the horizon, IDC’s tablet research director, Jean Philippe Bouchard, says that the commercial sector will have a strong impact on the rise of 2-in-1s.
“It will take some time but we expect that once IT departments are done evaluating Windows 10 and the awaited iPad Pro, they will start migrating some their portable PC and tablet installed base towards 2-in-1’s, which will accelerate the adoption of the form factor.
As far as PC shipments’ bigger than expected drop, IDC says a ‘stubbornly large inventory of notebooks’ and the decline of major currencies relative to the US dollar are to blame. IDC is optimistic about a modest recovery happening in 2017, but for now free upgrades of Windows 10, and a dearth of new PC models make it unlikely that the PC industry will grow through 2016.
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