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For 2020, worldwide shipments of mobile phones are forecast to reach *** billion units, a reduction from the **** billion units seen in 2019. Overall, global shipments of devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) are set to decline by **** percent in 2020 due to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Device shipments before the impact of COVID-19

Thanks to the widespread uptake of laptops and notebooks and, more recently, tablet devices and smartphones, sales and shipment figures for desktop PCs are decreasing steadily. This trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Experts argue, however, that there will always be a place for the traditional desktop PC, particularly in the workplace, and that this form of computer will continue to sell, albeit at a lesser rate than previously seen.

Some sources have suggested that the uptake of tablets amongst enterprises will become commonplace, with predictions of adoption rates close to 100 percent by 2020. The same source suggests that employers may also be slower in regard to offering business tablets to their workers, instead opting to allow employees to connect their own private devices to the enterprise network. In spite of this, shipments of basic and utility ultramobiles, such as tablets, are expected to continue to fall below their 2014 peak. Figures for the global quarterly shipments of tablets revealed that, in 2015, despite strong fourth-quarter sales, fewer tablets were sold in each quarter of that year than the comparable quarter of 2014. The shipment figures in 2016 suggest a continuation of this decreasing tendency.

In general, the market for computing devices remains competitive, although there are some clear market leaders who prove difficult to topple. In 2016, Lenovo held the largest global market share among PC vendors, while in 2014 the figures suggest that Lenovo also represents one of, if not the, largest vendors of notebooks and laptops. In terms of global market share among tablet vendors, Apple holds the largest portion of the market at around ** percent.