IDC Analysts Predict How COVID-19 Flash Will Affect Client Device Market This Year

They highlighted ten points in their forecast.
IDC analysts predict that the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 will lead to a series of major changes in the market for client devices in China. And not all of them will be negative.

Experts draw a parallel with the outbreak of SARS in 2003, which led to the rapid growth of the laptop market in the third quarter of the same year. According to analysts, then one of the growth factors was consumer awareness of the importance of accessing information on the Internet.

IDC’s forecast for the client device market in 2020 in connection with the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 includes ten points:

1. Device sales in China will fall between 30-40% in the first quarter, after which growth will resume. If in early March the situation with the spread of the virus is taken under control, the fall in the market of client devices for the whole of 2020 will be 7-10%.
2. In the short and long term, companies will focus more on changes in the organization of labor. IDC calls this the concept of “future work,” highlighting the workspace, workforce, and production culture. One of the trends of transformation is the transition to the cooperation of people and machines as the main form of labor.
3. The diversified demand for client devices will increase in the long run, driven by the proliferation of online learning.
4. The rapid development of video-based interaction forms, including real-time video communications, is expected.
5. The increase in demand for gaming devices due to the expansion of the base of gamers due to the extension of the New Year holidays and the introduction of home quarantine in connection with the outbreak of COVID-19.
6. Further development of wearable devices with the functions of monitoring physical condition and protecting health, including the appearance of devices for disinfection.
7. A global supply chain of client devices may run out of stocks lasting about a month and a half.
8. The purchases of client devices by small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those working in the hospitality, catering, retail, transportation and manufacturing sectors, will seriously decrease.
9. A wave of closure of conventional stores is expected under the onslaught of e-commerce platforms.
10. As the government increases support for the medical industry, there will be growing demand for appropriate client devices, such as PCs, tablets and wearable devices, from organizations involved in disease prevention, sanitary control, treatment of infectious diseases and the manufacture of medical equipment.