Industry News

Gartner: -14% Decline for Devices in 2020

2020-05-27T16:24:49Z

According to Gartner, global device (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) shipments are set to reach 1.9 billion units in 2020, a decline by -13.6% brought about by the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic.

“The forecasted decline in the PC market in particular could have been much worse,” the analyst says. “However, government lockdowns due to Covid-19 forced businesses and schools to enable millions of people to work from home and increase spending on new notebooks, Chromebooks and tablets for those workers. Education and government establishments also increased spending on those devices to facilitate e-learning.”

IDC: Pandemic Continues to Affect European IT Spending

2020-05-21T15:36:59Z

According to IDC, European IT spending-- including software, hardware and services-- is set to drop by -4.7% to reach $487 million in 2020, as the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic continues to loom over the European economy.

Many countries are relaxing lockdown restrictions, but businesses will continue to face "strong" challenges, with industries such as transportation and personal and consumer services being among the most affected. According to the analyst, the combined industries will face a decrease of -11.6% in IT spending in 2020. After all, airlines have drastically cut flight numbers, while many hotels, restaurants, bars and pubs remain were shut down following government guidelines. Some businesses are reopening, leading to some mild improvement for the months ahead, but rebound will be "very slow" for the two industries.

Gartner: IT Spending to Drop -8% in 2020

2020-05-14T15:41:43Z

Gartner predicts global IT spending will reach $3.4 trillion in 2020-- a -8% decline from 2019 brought about by a combination of the coronavirus pandemic and effects of the global economic recession.

The combination, according to the analyst, leads to CIOs prioritising spending on technology and services deemed "mission-critical," as opposed to initiatives aimed at growth or transformation. As a result recovery will not follow previous patterns, since the forces behind the recession will bring both supply side and demand side shocks as public health, social and commercial restriction start to lessen.

Context: Coronavirus Continues to Boost PC Demand

2020-05-13T16:40:24Z

W. European PC sales are up by 17.5% Y-o-Y in Q1 2020, Context reports, as a March 2020 surge in demand for remote-working hardware further pushed PC growth. Said surge comes through, of course, the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the analyst, PC sales are up by 7.6% Y-o-Y in January, 13.2% Y-o-Y in February and 31.8% Y-o-Y in March. Such numbers show when stricter measures to contain the spread of the virus across Europe lead to a "dramatic" increase in remote working. The full quarter sees a greater increase in business-targeted products, as sales for the segment are up by 22.8% Y-o-Y, compared to the 9.5% Y-o-Y growth of consumer-targeted PCs.

IDC Lowers 2020 IT Spending Forecast

2020-05-07T15:51:52Z

IDC revises its 2020 IT spending forecast to $2.25 trillion, a -5.1% decline from 2019 brought about by the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic driving down some spending categories and short-term business investments.

According to the forecast, ICT spending (including telecom and business services) will decline by -3.4% in 2020 to "just over" $4tr, with telecom spending dropping by -0.8%. However, infrastructure spending is set to grow by 4% to $237 billion, with resilient spending by service providers and ongoing demand for cloud services offsetting declines in business capital spending.

IDC: Channel Cannot Handle EMEA Mobile PC Demand

2020-04-29T16:30:31Z

EMEA traditional PC (desktops, notebooks and workstations) shipments are down by -3.1% Y-o-Y to 16.4 million units in Q1 2020, IDC reports, as near-flat commercial growth (0.7% Y-o-Y) fails to offset heavy consumer decline (-8.5% Y-o-Y).

The W. European PC market is down by -1.2% Y-o-Y, with the commercial segment seeing "modest" 3% Y-o-Y while the consumer segment drops by -8.9% Y-o-Y. CEMA sees a "very challenging" Q1 2020 across all sectors, with consumers prioritising devices such as notebooks and tablets, while CEE records a "relatively small" -3.1% Y-o-Y decline as the commercial segment sees strong 4.2% Y-o-Y growth thanks to the fulfillment of some public and corporate tenders in the region.

On the other hand, MEA fails to sustain any growth in Q1 2020, leading to shipments falling by -10.8% Y-o-Y. Markets across the region have been badly affected by both supply chain constraints and prices. The commercial segment is worst hit as it contracts by -13.7% Y-o-Y, while the consumer segment sees a -7.9% Y-o-Y decline.

A Light-Emitting Breakthrough in Photonics?

2020-04-15T16:26:12Z

Researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) claim to have developed the "Holy Grail" of the microelectronics industry-- light emissive silicon, key to creating the photonics-based computers of the future.

According to the researchers, current electronics are soon set to hit the ceiling. The limiting factor is heat, the result of the resistance electrons experience as they travel through the copper lines connecting the many transistors on a chip. Photons, the particles making light, can not only deliver more data, but can do so without producing heat.

Gartner: Coronavirus Leads to PC Decline

2020-04-15T16:24:43Z

According to Gartner, global PC shipments total 51.6 million units in Q1 2020-- a -12.3% Y-o-Y decline, the sharpest since 2013, and the direct result of the coronavirus pandemic after three consecutive quarters of growth.

The decline, of course, affect the EMEA market as shipments are down by -7% Y-o-Y to 16.8m units. Gartner says such decline is likely to continue throughout 2020, as the end of Q1 2020 saw a dramatic drop in both business and consumer PC purchases due to intense coronavirus lockdown measures across various countries in the region.

“The single most significant influencing factor for PC shipment decline was the coronavirus outbreak, which resulted in disruptions to both the supply and demand of PCs,” the analyst says. “Following the first lockdown in China in late January, there was lower PC production volume in February that turned into logistics challenges."

Context: Enterprise Market Reacts to Coronavirus

2020-04-10T12:15:11Z

The enterprise slower has been slower to react to the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) crisis than the PC and AV systems market, Context reports, since resellers were stockpiling products in anticipation of supply disruption as early as February.

However it is possible to see the effects on the enterprise sector on the W. European channel, since the analyst has added the numbers for week 12 of the pandemic. As expected, the UC and collaboration segment (including business communication and collaboration products such as VoIP systems, headsets and cameras) is performing well, boosted by the growing numbers working from home. The gains of week 11 further accelerated in week 12, and the analyst expects the trend to continue into April.

SK Hynix Details DDR5 Memory

2020-04-08T16:37:08Z

SK Hynix publishes a technical blog about the features of DDR5, a memory standard the company says will be available "in the near future" as it plans to start mass-production sometime "this year."

The company first detailed its DDR5 plans back in February 2019 with the presentation of a DDR5-6400 memory chip at the International Solid State Circuits Conference. The technology offers two times the bandwidth compared to DDR4, with the aim of reaching over 4800Mbps, allowing it to handle the demands of massively multi-core CPUs.