Tablets, Smartphone Shipments Carrying Increase in Gadget Shipments

If there was any doubt that we are in a gadget boom, a new report by Gartner should put those doubts to rest. The industry analyst reports that global shipments of tablets, PCs and mobile phones are going to be increasing by 5.9 percent this year compared to 2012. The total shipments of those kinds of gadgets are expected to hit 2.35 billion by the end of 2013. Gartner does note that while the report indicates good news for most sectors, there is a very dark cloud on the horizon when it comes to laptops and desktops.

PC shipments are actually expected to continue to nosedive, with tablets and smartphone shipments carrying the water for the rest of the gadget industry. The fact that tablets are continuing to see market growth is nothing new, many different industry analysts have already said roughly the same thing. Just how much tablets and smartphones are going to be carrying the market is new data.

In total, PC shipments are expected to drop by about 10.6 percent to 305 million worldwide. In contrast, tablets are going to see a 67.9-percent jump and will top out around 202 million. Smartphone shipments will be growing as well, though not nearly as quickly as tablets, with a 4.3-percent jump to 1.8 billion worldwide shipments this year.

Gartner says that the drop in PC shipments shows a worldwide desire for better mobility. Companies that had leaned on PCs but are now moving towards BYOD policies that include tablets aren’t helping either.

Entering the market for real this year is another category that is known as ultramobiles. This category is made up of Chromebooks and Slate and hybrid devices running Windows 8. Gartner believes that ultramobiles could chip into the tablet market as we get closer to the end of 2013.