“We’re expecting consumer and commercial PC buyers alike to be more experimental with new types of PCs, especially because of their lower price points,” said Bob O’Donnell, program vice president, Clients and Displays, in the press release. “Hardware vendors and software developers should seize the opportunity to promote differentiation by rewriting the computing experience to match the new variety of PC sub form factors arriving in the market.”
IDC’s predictions for the PC industry in 2010 are:
• Ultrathins will be under 5% of total portable PC shipments. The focus on ultrathin PCs will continue to grow in 2010, but the value equation for many consumers is still not compelling enough to drive significant growth.
• Mininotebook shipment growth will drastically slow and plateau. Lack of differentiation and declining prices for other portable PCs will translate into shipment growth rates in the low double digit range, just under the portable PC average for the remainder of the forecast period.
• Average selling price (ASP) declines will slow dramatically. Stronger market demand from both the commercial and consumer markets should translate into solid shipment growth this year, making it less likely that the market will aggressively lower ASPs to spur growth.
• Shipments of portable PCs with WiMAX embedded will surpass shipments of portable PCs with 3G cellular embedded in 2010. While activation rates for 3G enabled notebooks may be higher than WiMAX enabled notebooks, the foundation is being laid for future WiMAX adoption.
• Share of all-in-one desktops will double. Continued interest from consumers, combined with new momentum in the commercial sector, will drive strong shipment growth and help all-in-one desktops to capture nearly 10% of the worldwide desktop market in 2010.
• Portable PCs will account for more than 60% of all PC shipments. The drivers that have made portable PCs so popular have not changed. Although portable PC shipments will grow well past the 50% mark, value conscious desktop adoption in emerging markets will slow this growth slightly.
• 10% of new enterprise desktop client deployments will be virtual. The expected commercial market rebound will help in the process of experimenting with new computing models, enabling virtualization of the desktop client to gain some traction.
• Touch-enabled portable and desktop PCs will gain little traction. Without compelling touch-specific software, consumers aren’t likely to buy touch-enabled PCs in large quantities. In turn, application developers will hold back until a larger installed base is available.
• Apple’s launch of the iPad will not spur increased sales of Windows-based Tablet PCs. Although Apple’s iPad could find success, its shipments won’t count in IDC’s Tablet PC numbers since it doesn’t run a full operating system. Forthcoming tablet products from traditional PC makers such as HP and Lenovo are likely to garner interest, but not high shipment figures.
DVD will remain the dominant optical drive type in PCs. Quite simply, according to IDC, DVD is “good enough” from both a price and picture quality standpoint to withstand the challenge from Blu-ray for dominance in desktop and portable PC drives.
The IDC document, Personal Computing Top 10 Predictions for 2010 (Doc #222035), provides IDC’s top 10 predictions for the worldwide PC market in 2010. Each prediction is followed by analysis and the rationale for the prediction. The document also offers the views of IDC’s PC analysts for what major trends will start, continue, or finish in 2010. More info here.
Source: IDC
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
@ Bokweb
I beg to differ with you here.
From dictionary.reference.com:
operating system
–nounComputers.
the collection of software that directs a computer’s operations, controlling and scheduling the execution of other programs, and managing storage, input/output, and communication resources. Abbreviation: OS
—
The iPad HAS other programs, storage, I/O and communication resources.
If someone builds a car with no radio is it no longer a car? What about an air conditioner? The question is – on what grounds does IDC claim iPad does not have “a full OS”? Whatever they try to say is rather arbitrary. Which is the point.
But in the end it does not really matter. The iPad is what it is, and will stand on its own. IDC’s silliness is irrelevant.
@ Original Jake
If Apple empowers the iPad to update without plugging it in to a computer w/iTunes, IDC should definitely re-think this decision. Until then, they have a (thin) leg to stand on.
Oh, and no, this is not a good thing for Apple. It will serve to minimize Apple’s iPad success and ghettoize it.
You mean delegate it to the white trash neighborhood.
Why do people talk like this?
Who cares what they think. They’re probably wrong.
Anyone know how good their predictions were last year?
This is actually a good thing. It will keep Ballmer and shills like Paul Thurrott mindlessly touting “marketshare” numbers that mean less and less.
WIndows will continue to dominate cash registers and airline ticket counters, while Apple innovates in the fastest growing market areas.
I wonder if Gartner will go the same route?