Global sales of smartphones, laptops and tablets down 3 percent in 2019

Global sales of smartphones, tablets and laptops are again declining this year. That’s what Gartner expects. A total of 2.2 billion appliances are sold this year, which is a decrease of 3.3% compared to 2018.

The mobile phone market is expected to set a record for the worst performance of these types of devices. Gartner expects that this year 3.8 percent fewer mobile phones – that is, smartphones and stupid mobile phones – will be sold.

The current mobile phone market of 1.7 billion sales is about 10 percent lower than the 1.9 billion sales in 2015, according to research director Ranjit Atwal. If mobile phones do not deliver significant new features, efficiencies or experiences, users will not upgrade and the life cycle of these devices will become longer.

The extended lifespan of mobile phones started in 2018 and will continue this year. Gartner expects the lifespan of high-end phones to increase from 2.6 years to 2.9 years in 2023. According to the company, sales of specific smartphones will decrease by 2.5 percent in 2019, which is the strongest decrease ever.

5G is going to rise rapidly

However, there will be an increase in the area of 5G telephones, according to Gartner. It is expected that 7 percent of global communication providers offer a commercial, wireless 5G connection. This means that the 5G devices will also see an increase.

By 2020, according to Gartner, phones that support 5G will represent 6 percent of all phone sales. In 2023 there will be rapid growth and 5G phones will account for 51 percent of sales.

Laptops

According to Gartner, there is still a lot of uncertainty in the area of PCs. Global PCs sales reached 63 million devices in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 1.5 percent. But the company expects total sales in 2019 to reach 257 million devices, which is 1 percent less than in 2018.

Atwal expects the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China to have an impact on the PC market.