Items tagged with IDC
If you think that you have had trouble finding a new console as we enter the holiday season, you are not alone. PlayStation 5 consoles are out of stock, and Xbox Series X/Series S console shortages are expected to last into 2021. These shortages and stock issues could stem from the pandemic we are facing or highly increased demand, but some analysts think these shortages are entirely artificial. International Data Corporation (IDC) analyzed the goings-on in hardware markets, such as with Xbox vs. PlayStation sales this quarter. IDC’s gaming research director Lewis Ward has claimed to CNN that profit margins may be “thin or even outright in the red” as this generation of consoles...
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Are we finally seeing a turning of the tides for PC sales? Well according to new analysis from both Gartner and IDC, it appears so given the promising sales numbers tallied for 2019. According to IDC, global PC shipments grew by 2.7 percent for 2019, taking the total tally to 266.7 million. Gartner didn't show as much growth year-over-year, but still marked down a 0.6 percent increase for 2019 for a total of 261.2 million units shipped for the year. Although the percentage increase and total shipment numbers differ, the consensus from both firms is that the global PC market witnessed its first year-over-year sales gain since 2011. So, what exactly is the reason for this uptick in sales...
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When it comes to the world of smartphones, Huawei has been kicking ass and taking names. IDC has released its latest global smartphone market share figures for Q1 2019, and they show a big shakeup in the smartphone rankings. While Samsung is still the world's #1 producer of smartphones, Apple's stunning iPhone sales shortfall coupled with Huawei's meteoric rise in sales (even without a presence in the U.S. market) have allowed it to slip into the second-place position. Compared to Q1 2018, Samsung saw its shipments decline by 8.1 percent during Q1 2019 to a total of 71.9 million smartphones. Samsung's sales were buoyed by the recently launched Galaxy S10 family during Q1,...
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Perhaps in a parallel universe, tablets rule the day and traditional PCs are now extinct. Not in this universe, though. Both Gartner and International Data Corporation (IDC) tallied more than 62.1 million worldwide PC shipments in the second quarter of 2018. Where the two differ is in the precise growth rate—Gartner says PC shipments are up 1.4 percent year-over-year, marking the first quarter of annual growth since Q1 2012, and IDC pegs it at 2.7 percent. The exact number doesn't matter, it's the fact that PC shipments are on the rise that is interesting, and encouraging, especially in light of consumers increasingly using their smartphones for tasks that were once the exclusive domain...
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A common criticism of the iPhone 7 is that Apple did not innovate enough with the design or overall set of features. It is an incremental upgrade from the iPhone 6s that is better in a lot of ways and faster, but not very exciting. True as those criticisms are, it did not stop people from rushing out and buying the iPhone 7. In fact, demand for the iPhone 7 is how Apple was able to outsell Samsung in the smartphone category during the fourth quarter of 2016. Market research firm IDC says the holiday quarter capped off what was another positive year of smartphone growth even though there were concerns about it slowing down. Smartphone vendors collectively shipped 428.5 million handsets in the...
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Market research firm IDC put a damper on the smartwatch category noting that basic wearables such as fitness bands are taking over as the wrist accessory of choice among consumers. It also predicted that Apple's success in the smartwatch sector going forward "will likely be muted" as it comes off a down quarter with year-over-year decline in Apple Watch sales. If that's the case, then why is Apple CEO Tim Cook so high on the smartwatch category?Simply put, Cook views IDC's assessment of the category as being flat out wrong."Sales growth is off the charts. In fact, during the first week of holiday shopping, our sell-through of Apple Watch was greater than any week in the product's history. And...
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Are PCs in decline? The latest quarter reports are rather bleak. Both Gartner, Inc. and the International Data Corporation (IDC) have announced that global PC shipments fell for the eighth consecutive quarter. Worldwide shipments totaled roughly 68 million units, a year-on-year decline of 3.9% and 5.7% less than last year. PC shipments have abated due to a disappointing back-to-school season and low demand, particularly in emerging markets. In “mature” markets (i.e. first world countries), the market is simply over-saturated. Consumers in “emerging” or second and third-world countries, prefer portable smartphones and phablets. Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, noted, “According...
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The pieces are starting to come together following Apple’s announcement yesterday that it won’t be releasing opening weekend sales for its new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus flagships. “These initial sales will be governed by supply, not demand, and we have decided that it is no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers,” said Apple in a statement. “Therefore we won’t be releasing a first-weekend number any longer.” The iPhone has been on a downward trajectory with regards to sales in the past year, with fiscal Q3 2016 shipments falling to 40.4 million units compared to 47.7 million units during the same period last year. Apple faced significant headwinds in the Chinese market...
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It’s no secret that the traditional [slate] tablet market has taken a nosedive in recent years. We’ve seen market leader Apple report declining sales for the past two years, with iPad sales falling 25 percent year-over-year during the company’s fiscal Q1 — and if Apple is seeing a slide in tablet sales, the rest of the industry is surely seeing similar trends. Well, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), the worldwide tablet market took a 13.7 percent hit in sales during Q4 2015. Total quarterly tablet sales came in at 65.9 million, while full calendar year sales tallied 206.8 million (which represented a 10.1 percent decrease from 2014). By while the overall tablet market was down,...
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While the numbers are a little different, market research firms IDC and Gartner both tallied a year-on-year decline in PC shipments. The former counted 71 million PC shipments in the third quarter of 2015, down 10.8 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago, while the latter counted 73.7 million PCs, down 7.7 percent in the same time period. That's the bad news. The good news? There's light at the end of the tunnel courtesy of Windows 10, which Microsoft recently indicated is now installed on 110 million devices. What's more, the decline in shipments wasn't unexpected. According to IDC, currency devaluation is one reason why PC shipments weren't higher than what they were, but even so,...
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Windows 10 can’t get here soon enough. We’ve been hearing about the downturn in the PC market for years, and things haven’t gotten any better in recent quarters. With Windows 10 less than three weeks away, IDC has released its PC sales figures for Q2 showing that the industry witnessed a year-over-year decline 11.8 percent to 66.1 million units. "Although the second quarter decline in PC shipments was significant, and slightly more than expected, the overall trend fits with expectations," said IDC’s Loren Loverde. "We continue to expect low to mid-single digit declines in volume during the second half of the year with volume stabilizing in future years.” Looking at overall global sales, Lenovo...
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Microsoft is nearing the release of its Windows 10 operating system, which is expected to debut by the end of summer. Typically a new Windows launch would mean a spike in PC sales, and while that may still be the case, the new OS isn't likely to be a cure-all for what's become a stagnant market. Instead, worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by 6.2 percent in 2015. If that comes to pass, it will represent the fourth consecutive quarter of sagging PC sales. Market research firm IDC blames the continuing decline on ongoing competition from tablets and smartphones, while also citing "generally low demand." "Microsoft and PC vendors still need to convince users of the advantages of the new...
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Before the iPad came around, tablets were just another has-been sector that didn’t show much promise (does anyone remember Windows XP Tablet PC Edition?). However, following the introduction of the iPad in 2010, the sector exploded in popularity. Numerous manufacturers have jumped onboard in the years since, although Apple is still the top tablet manufacturer, with Samsung taking up the second place position. But over the past year, we’ve seen some softness in the tablet market. Apple’s iPad has seen sales declines for the past few quarters. For fiscal Q1 2015 (actual Q4 2014), iPad shipments fell to 21.4 million units, representing an 18 percent year-over-year decline. However, the iPad sales...
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If slow and steady wins the race, then Microsoft might be onto something with its Windows Phone platform. It's been slowly and steadily gaining market share and IDC figures that by 2018, it will hold 5.6 percent of the global smartphone market. That doesn't sound like much, and it isn't, though it could certainly make things interesting between Windows Phone and iOS, depending on where Microsoft's added share comes from. While iOS is in second place, it's a distance second at just 13.8 percent, compared to Android's massive 82.3 percent share of the market. To the point, it's a much closer race between iOS and Windows Phone than it is between Android and iOS. Time will tell how it all shakes...
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The number crunchers at International Data Corporation (IDC) counted more than 300 million smartphone shipments around the world for the second consecutive quarter. To be more precise, 327.6 million units shipped during third quarter of 2014, representing a 25.2 percent growth rate compared to the same period a year ago. No big surprise there, though it wasn't all business as usual -- for the first time ever, Xiaomi jumped into the top 5 list of smartphone vendors. Xiaomi shipped 17.3 million smartphones during the third quarter, propelling the Chinese vendor into third place with a 5.3 percent market share, just ahead of Lenovo, which shipped 16.9 million handsets to claim a 5.2 percent share....
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Lenovo continues to lead the PC market when it comes to global PC shipments. According to a report released by the International Data Corporation, Lenovo’s market share has increased to 20 percent for the first time. Lenovo led the pack by shipping a record volume of 15.7 million PCs. HP was in second place with 14.7 million (18.8 percent) and Dell shipped 10.4 million PCs (13.3 percent). The report stated that Lenovo’s market share increased to 20 percent for Q4 2014, up from 17.7 percent back in the third quarter of 2013. The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro “Reaching the 20% mark in global PC share is a great milestone for Lenovo – and we got there even faster than expected, “said...
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From the vantage point of International Data Corporation (IDC), the wearable computing market is extending beyond early adopters and getting ready to hit its stride. More stylish and and functional accessories are being featured in magazines like GQ and Shape, which is indicative of growing interest beyond just geek circles. IDC says wearables "took a huge step forward" last year, and based in part on the momentum the category has built up, the market research firm believes shipment volumes will exceed 19 million units in 2014, more than tripling last year's volume. Image Source: Flickr (Karlis Dambrans) That would be impressive, but also only the tip of the iceberg. IDC believes the wearable...
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Hot on the heels of an earlier report by Nielsen that around two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) announced today that the smartphone market as a whole reached another milestone in 2013 by surpassing the 1 billion shipments mark for the first time. IDC says Android and iOS are largely to thank, and especially the former, which is found on nearly 8 out of every 10 smartphones around the world. "Clearly, there was strong end-user demand for both Android and iOS products during the quarter and the year," says Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "What stands out are the different routes Android and Apple took...
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Preliminary data from International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker indicate that tablet shipments around the globe grew to 76.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2013, representing an impressive 62.4 percent sequential growth rate and a 28.2 percent year-over-year increase. However, as obscene as those numbers are, they're down "dramatically" compared to the 87.1 percent growth in 2012. According to IDC, this slowed growth indicates that some markets are becoming saturated with slates, including the U.S. Demand remains ultra high in emerging markets, though not to the extent that it can sustain the same level of growth as in years past. "We expect commercial...
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Talk about a banner year for smartphone sales. According to the newest data published by International Data Corporation (IDC), smartphone shipments around the globe topped 1 billion units for the first time ever in 2013, representing a significant 38.4 percent jump from the 725.3 million units tallied in 2012. That figure is also within less than 1 percent of IDC's forecast, so give the company's bean counters a cookie. "The sheer volume and strong growth attest to the smartphone's continued popularity in 2013," says Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "Total smartphone shipments reached 494.4 million units worldwide in 2011, and doubling that volume in just two years...
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Microsoft can take pause for a moment and celebrate the fact that its Windows Phone platform experienced an impressive 156 percent year-on-year growth rate in the global smartphone market, according to data released by International Data Corporation (IDC). It did it by shipping 9.5 million Windows Phone devices in the third quarter of 2013 compared to 3.7 million in the same period a year ago. Unfortunately for Microsoft, that only translates into a 3.6 percent share of a market that's dominated by Android. There's just no stopping Android. Rather than show any signs of slowing down or plateauing, Android went and topped an 80 percent penetration rate for the first time ever, increasing its share...
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Go ahead and credit Apple for popularizing the tablet market by building a device that became an instant hit, that's fair. And give kudos to the Cupertino company for dominating the landscape with its iPad tablets, that's also fair. However, just as we saw in the smartphone sector, Apple's lead in tablets is eroding right before our very eyes. The latest data from market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that Apple's share of the tablet market is now down below 30 percent, marking a precipitous drop from a year ago. That's still high enough to quality for first place among the competition, but it's also down more than 10 percent versus last year. What's more, Samsung's...
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