Isn’t the craze of constantly being in possession of the best, latest new electronic gadget somewhat waning over the years? Time and again I have looked up at the commercial for the latest Samsung or Apple device and then gone back to my months old smart-phone with hardly a sigh? Gartner, Inc, an American research and advisory firm that provides IT insight for IT and other business leaders, believes that this trait is a global phenomenon and will lead to a decline in overall gadget shipment this year.
According to Gartner, there would be decline of 3% in the worldwide combined shipments of devices like PCs, tablets, ultra phones and mobile phones in 2016. In 2015, the global device market faced a decline of 0.75%. If the firm’s predictions do come true, 2016 will mark the sector’s decline for the second consecutive year.
The global devices market is not on pace to return to single-digit growth soon.
said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, although he did go on to say that flagship devices will continue doing well.
We expect premium ultramobiles will start benefiting from the collective performance and integration of the latest Intel CPU platform and Windows 10.
Another factor behind the slowdown can be the fact that Apple and Samsung have not really been innovating as much as they used to. Take the example of the recently released iPhone 7. Apple has been sticking to the same external design of iPhone for almost three generations now, and physically, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6s are almost identical.
Sure, the iPhone 7 has a pretty good camera, however, slight structural changes and a few improvements here and there are clearly not going to cut it anymore with the customers.
According to Gartner, mobile phone shipments will notice a downfall of 1.6% in 2016, making it the second consecutive year of decline in the shipments. At present the only area for growth is the market of cheaper android phones. But it’s believed that the sales are expected to come back on track and show a growth in 2017.
As per Gartner,
We expect the market for premium smartphones to return to 3.5 per cent growth in 2017, as stronger replacement cycles kick in and in anticipation of a new iPhone next year, which is expected to offer a new design and new features that are attractive enough to convince more replacement buyers.
Meanwhile, companies definitely need to up their games and really innovate, if they want people to perk up at announcements of new gadgets, like they used to once.
