After decline, global device shipments to grow in 2018: Gartner

New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) After suffering a decline of three per cent in 2017, global shipments of devices including PCs, tablets and mobile phones are forecast to return to growth (at over 1.3 per cent) in 2018, market research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

While the performance of shipments of devices fluctuate Year-over-Year (YoY), end-user device spending continues to rise and is forecast to increase seven per cent in 2018.

"Driven by better specifications despite increasing costs, average selling points (ASPs) for devices rose by 9.1 per cent in 2017 and this trend will continue through this year, where we expect prices will increase by 5.6 per cent," Ranjit Atwal, Research Director at Gartner, said in a statement.

Despite PC prices increasing 4.6 per cent in 2018, driven by business buying, the PC market unit demand is stabilising, Gartner said.

The traditional PC market will decline 3.9 per cent in units in 2018 and is expected to decline a further 3.6 per cent during 2019.

Gartner predicted that mobile phone lifetimes will increase from 2017 through 2020.

"Premium phone lifetimes are expected to increase the most in the near-term, as users look to hold onto these devices due to a lack of new technology impact, thus, prohibiting upgrades," said Anshul Gupta, Research Director at Gartner.

Future AI capabilities, including natural-language processing and machine perception (reading all sensors), will allow smartphones to learn, plan and solve problems for users.

"This is not just about making the smartphone smarter, but augmenting users by reducing their cognitive load and enabling a ‘Digital Me’ that sits on the device," Gupta added.