Manufacturers of PCs and notebooks fear a bad financial year. Sales are likely to drop almost 10 percent if poor availability and inflation continue. Mobile phones have also sold better in the past.
PC market shrinks by almost 10 percent
In the spring, market researchers and manufacturers were still assuming that sales would be stable. A lot has changed since then, which is why the forecasts are now pointing in the other direction. Should be in 2022 almost 10 percent fewer PCs and notebooks sold than was the case in 2021. Everyone agrees on the reasons.
Gartner’s market research team sees you “perfect storm”, which consists of disrupted supply chains, high inflation, currency fluctuations and geopolitical turmoil. Due to current exchange rates, some hardware presented in 2020 and 2021 is even more expensive today than when it was presented.
The slump is particularly noticeable among private customers. Compared to last year, consumer demand is expected here drop by a full 13.1 percent. A decline of 7.2 percent is assumed for business PCs (source: Gartner).
Some customers would still like to access it, but have no chance of stocking up on systems or components due to a lack of availability. Some notebooks with an AMD Ryzen 6000U processor are hard to come by even half a year after they were introduced. With some Intel processors, on the other hand, the situation has calmed down somewhat in recent weeks.
What you should know before buying a laptop:
Smartphone sales are also falling
According to Gartner, in 2022, too significantly fewer cell phones sold will. Globally, a decline of 7.1 percent is currently expected, with the shrinking market in China expected to have the greatest impact. For the coming year, on the other hand, an increase is to be expected, as customers could increasingly exchange their 4G cell phones for 5G models.