Device shipments to hit 2.5 billion units

Combined worldwide shipments of PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones are expected to climb 1.5% year-on-year in 2015 to reach 2.5 billion units, according to Gartner.

The research firm predicts that end-user spending on devices will total US$606 billion in 2015, but said that this would mark for the first time since 2010 a 5.7% decline in current US dollars.

“Our forecast for unit shipment growth for all devices in 2015 has dropped by 1.3 percentage points from last quarter’s estimate. This was partly due to a continued slowdown in PC purchases in Western Europe, Russia and Japan in particular, largely due to price increases resulting from local currency devaluation against the dollar,” said Gartner research director, Ranjit Atwal.