With the advent of mobile computing, the PC market is gradually moving away from desktop computing. This trend has been consistent for past several years and recently analyst firm Gartner reported a decline in worldwide PC shipments for the seventh consecutive quarter. Despite several challenges the desktop market has a lot of potential and is far from over.
In its recent analysis, global technology research and consulting firm International Data Corporation (IDC), supported Gartner’s prediction of a steady decline in desktop sales in the coming few years. According to IDC’s report, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) PC market experienced a mild decline of 1.8% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in Q4 2016 to total 3.2 million units and this decline stems from the desktop segment.
“Notebooks have been in the market for more than 10 years and yet they were not able to replace the desktops in this time. If that were possible, it would have happened by now. Desktops are here to stay for a long time, however they will continue to decline at a slower speed. The commercial market will be relatively more stabilized than the consumer market in coming years,” explained Tracy Tsai, Research Vice President at Gartner.
Though connectivity and mobility play a greater role in everyday lives, the desktop continues to be a dominant form of computing for the workforce. Most organizations have not instituted BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) or flexible work policies, which means traditional desktops are still the primary device at workplaces.
Emad Sallam, Field Marketing Manager – Commercial ME at Dell highlighted the commercial space is slated to see more growth in the years to come. “We expect more demand for our computing solutions from the corporate and SMB sector, as government initiatives aim to drive economic growth. This market segment presents another lucrative opportunity for Dell and has been a cornerstone of our strategy in the region.”
“There is a specific group of users needing desktops, particularly public segment and enterprises. Desktops are also relatively more secure, as one cannot move them around, which is easier to manage in terms of assets for governments and schools, compared to notebooks. Business is the number one reason for why desktops will remain in the market for a long time,” explained Tsai.
The desktop is strong in certain functions and demographic segments, gaming being one of them. Those who prefer online PC gaming, want the best performance and so they would choose desktops for optimized media experiences. Most of Virtual Reality gaming is also running on desktops for the same reason.
When talking about desktops, growth prospects lie in the gaming PC segment for AMD. “Though the sales of desktop PCs are on a decline, we see a lot of potential in the gaming segment. The high end gaming PC market is on the rise and there is no other product that can challenge the kind of gaming experience a high performance desktop can provide,” explained Omar Fakhri, Head of Sales MEA at AMD.
“Our Alienware line has long been a mainstay of the gaming hardware market and a key part of our strategy in the Middle East. As demand for high-powered and top-of-the-line gaming solutions picks up pace in the region, we expect this segment to grow and evolve in encouraging ways,” said Sallam.
The Middle East region is becoming increasingly connected and digitally savvy, thus driving the market for computing solutions across a wide spectrum of needs. “When it comes to the Middle East, the countries of the GCC region show the most promise in terms of growth, innovation and long-term development. It is these countries where we have seen much of our growth and being the most lucrative markets, will be the focus of our efforts,” said Sallam.
The overall price and performance of desktops is another factor why they are better than notebooks. For specific purposes such as a bigger screen, better price for performance, high computing power, or for easy asset management, the desktop is still preferred and the gaming desktops market will remain strong for a long time due to the vibrant gaming ecosystem.
If you are looking for an answer to whether the Desktop PC will fade away soon, the short one is ‘No’. Technology may change the face of computing in future and evolve into some other format of desktop or display. But currently, demand from certain segments of economy such as government, public sector, gaming are providing a much needed breather for the channel despite uncertain future and declining numbers. These are the segments being driven by high end machines that can offer better returns to channel partners.
