BERLIN: The global personal computer market is expected to see sales fall 5.4 percent in 2016 but 2-in-1 detachable models are likely to be more popular, research firm IDC said yesterday.
The expected 5.4 percent decline in global PC sales is smaller than a 10.1 percent slump in 2015. The outlook for later years has been reduced by about 1 percent, US-based International Data Corp said.
“PCs remain an indispensable part of the tech landscape,” said Loren Loverde, an IDC analyst.
But detachable tablets and phablets will remain formidable competitors to traditional PCs, IDC added.
Market leaders including Lenovo, HP, Dell and Microsoft are expanding into the 2-in-1 models which are set to shine in the market, analysts said.
The 2-in-1 models, which are detachable devices, include Microsoft’s Surface Book, Lenovo’s Yoga, and devices of new players like Shenzhen-based Huawei.
Huawei debuted a 2-in-1 laptop in February, the first time for the telecom equipment and smartphone maker to penetrate the PC sector.
