PC market in step with Windows 10

MUMBAI, INDIA: Businesses may adopt Windows 10 earlier and boost the PC market in 2017. The global PC shipment market is expected to total 287 million units in 2016, a decline of one per cent year over year, but on pace to increase four per cent in 2017.

“Ultramobile premium devices are expected to drive the PC market forward with the move to Windows 10 and PCs built around Intel’s Skylake architecture,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “We expect that businesses will deploy Windows 10 faster than with previous Windows upgrades.”

Gartner’s global survey of 3,000 business respondents conducted in the fourth quarter of 2015 across six countries (Brazil, China, India, France, U.K. and U.S.), found that nearly 80 per cent of businesses are expected to have completed the testing and evaluation of Windows 10 within 12 months and over 60 per cent within nine months.

“Given the shorter testing and evaluation period, many businesses could start to migrate by the end of 2016,” said Mr. Atwal. “By the end of 2017, many business are looking to move as much as 40 percent of their installed base onto new Windows 10 devices, mainly driven by the appeal hybrid touch-screen 2-1. This will be the catalyst for growth in the PC market in 2017.

Worldwide combined shipments of devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) are expected to reach 2.4 billion units in 2016 , a 1.9 percent increase from 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (see Table 1). End-user spending in constant U.S. dollars is expected to decline 0.5 percent for the first time.