Client IT hardware devices up 4.6% in the year to June 2015

Last week we looked at enterprise hardware, so I thought it was time to look at client devices. This is a much larger market – worth $614b in the year to the end of June 2015. It grew by 4.6% in total. I’ve split the underlying categories into 4. Smart devices are smartphones, smart tablets, smart wearables (including anything running iOS or Android operating systems). PCs are desktop, laptop, PC tablets and workstations (including all machines running Windows on x86 chips). Printers are laser and inkjet (including Multi-Functional Printers, but excluding dedicated copiers). Others are digital cameras, basic mobile phones and audio and media devices. I’ve included all product sales, irrespective of the type or size of user. Needless to say we can split them out in greater detail. You’ll want to know more about how these markets are developing.

Smart devices are now by far the largest component, accounting for 55.8% of the total. PC revenues were 26.7%, while printers were just 6.1% (see Figure).

Apple led the market in the year, generating a 31.8% share from $195b revenues. Apart from Huawei and Microsoft, it also had the strongest growth at 21.0%. I’m constantly amazed at Apple’s ability to grow its logistics by a quarter every quarter. Samsung, though declining, its firmly entrenched in second position. Lenovo has been growing through acquisition and is now ahead of HP in third place.

Looking at the market shares for smart, PC and printer sectors (see Figure), we see some big differences of course. Apple has exactly 50% of the smart market, Lenovo and HP are joint leaders in PCs, while HP and Canon are joint leaders of the printer space.

It’s not just the size, but trajectory of each vendor we need to consider in forecasting this market (see Figure). For now Apple is by far the most successful, enjoying a particularly strong growth in the 4th quarter Xmas season. HP and Dell had much stronger shares before we entered the ‘smart era’. I’m not sure they can compete effectively unless they supply smart phones and tablets – maybe HP Inc., when split off later this year, will be bought by someone interesting.

The future will see strong growth of 3D printing and smart wearables and an endorsement of these product types by major vendors. Apple’s iWatch and HP’s research into solid printing are important movements to watch and assess of course.