The global desktop and mobile workstation market began 2022 with strong momentum but ultimately faced saturation and economic realities near the year’s end. Unit shipments in the fourth quarter of 2022 (22Q4) shrank 22.2% compared to a year ago as IT device spending slowed amidst economic concerns and fulfillment of backlogged orders, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Workstation Tracker.
For the entire year, the market still managed to achieve a shipment record of nearly 7.7 million units, growing 2.1% and surpassing the previous record of 7.5 million set in 2021. Unlike the year prior, which saw unprecedented mobile workstation adoption due to work from home, the gains in 2022 came from the return to office momentum that sparked a desktop workstation recovery while the mobile side was flat. Nonetheless, one permanent change wrought by COVID-19 is that IDC expects the mobile form factor to be the dominant device going forward in markets where hybrid work has taken root.
“We had four consecutive quarters where shipments exceeded two million units from the third quarter of 2021 through the second quarter of 2022,” said Jay Chou, research manager, Worldwide Client Devices Tracker. “This was well above historical norms and proved unsustainable in the face of tightened budgets and ongoing inflation. After two years of strong purchases, we expect corporate IT to divert away from endpoint devices and we’ll likely see 2023 volume shrink 4.2%. This is a slight change from our previous forecast which expected a milder contraction. However, beyond the short-term challenges, we believe new model launches, Windows 11 transition, and other drivers should lead to growth from 2024.”