According to research by Stocklytics.com, a $10 billion decrease is expected in 2024 for the PC and smartphone sector.
A number of factors have attributed to this, as has been revealed in data presented by the analytics company.
Due to remote work and education during COVID-19, companies and consumers worldwide spent hundreds of billions of dollars on new tablets, laptops, and mobile phones.
According to a Statista survey, the total spending on these devices in 2020 amounted to $670 billion and a year later this figure jumped to $730 billion.
However, in 2022, total sales revenue underwent the biggest decline in years falling by a huge $40 billion year-over-year.
Although sales revenue rose to $720 billion in 2023, 2024 is expected to experience see another downturn with inflation significantly reducing consumer purchasing power.
Statista predicts that global spending on PCs and mobile phones may drop by $10 billion or 1.8% year-over-year and hit $710 billion in 2024, marking the second annual revenue drop since 2020.
But the negative trend is forecasted to change in the following years, with total sales revenue rising by 14% to $810 billion by 2028.
While the entire IT devices market is expected to end this year with a huge $10 billion revenue drop, most of that figure is forecast to come from the smartphones segment.
Despite the growth in emerging markets, global smartphone sales have been hugely impacted by component shortages, inventory build-up, and longer replacement cycles. This, together with the gloomy economic outlook resulted in a massive sales drop in 2022.
Back then, global smartphone sales plunged by $27 billion year-over-year to $454 billion.
Although last year brought a recovery, with total sales revenue rising to $479 billion, it is expected to change this year.
Statista expects global smartphone sales to experience the biggest decrease of all IT devices, and is forecast to plunge by $11.4 billion in 2024.
In comparison, tablet sales are expected to drop by $1.2 billion to $53.7 billion, while global laptop sales are forecast to hit $127.5 billion, or $100 million less than last year.
Desktop PCs are the only market segment expected to see a positive trend, with total sales revenue expected to rise by $100 million year-over-year to $38 billion in 2024.
