News Feature | February 28, 2017

Forecast Predicts PC Market Will Grow 10% Annually Over Next 5 Years

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Healthcare Vertical Promises Big Growth For Beacons Through 2019

Detachable tablets will take an increasing share of the market over during the same period.

A Daniel Research Group report forecasts the U.S. personal device market will see annual growth of 10 percent over the next five years. The United States Personal Device 2017-2021 Forecast Report also found Detachable Tablets will be the preferred devices of both households and businesses, driven by new and replacement personal computer purchases.

This growth is being fueled by five major trends including a mild economic slow-down in 2019-2020; productive innovation and increased adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) architectures and infrastructures; falling average installed base age and replacement cycle lengths; increased mobility; and form factor convergence.

The report predicts that, over the next five years:

  • 639 million PCs and Tablets will be purchased by households and businesses
  • 82 percent will be replacements for older models
  • more than 9.4 million households and businesses will be a PC or Tablet for the first time
  • the average number of personal computing devices per business will reach over 47 per business while the average number of personal computing devices per households will decline to 2.3
  • the time required to replace all of the installed personal computing devices will drop to 6.12 years by 2021
  • 1.2 billion mobile phones will be purchased, 93 percent of which will be replacements for older phones
  • 11.5 million households will be a mobile phone for the first time and household penetration will reach 97.2 percent
  • the average number of smartphones per household will reach 2.9 per household
  • the average age of a mobile phone in use will stabilize at 2 years, while the time required to replace all of the mobile phones in use will stabilize at 2.6 years

Stephen Daniel, President of DRG, says, “The opportunity to migrate legacy and manual business processes in the enterprise sector, and life management tasks in the consumer sector, to Personal Devices has never been greater. Over the next five year growth in enterprise mobility applications that exploit the adaptability of current and anticipated Detachable Tablets will drive a significant portion of the market growth.”

According to Daniel, “Over the next five years, Detachable Tablets share of Mobile Device shipments will grow from 12 percent to 64 percent, increasing its share of Mobile Device installed base from 6 percent to 36 percent. By 2021, 60 percent of households and 68 percent of business will be using Detachable Tablets.”