Worldwide Shipments Of PCs, Tablets And Mobile Phones To Reach 2.5B Units In 2014, 1.1B Of Them Will Be On Android: Gartner

The worldwide shipments of devices, including PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones are projected to reach 2.5 billion units in 2014, a 7.6 percent increase from 2013, with Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system expected to power nearly half of all such devices, according to a new report from Gartner (NYSE:IT).

The report said that Android is on pace to surpass one billion users across all devices in 2014, while mobile phones are expected to dominate overall device shipments with nearly 1.9 billion units projected to ship in 2014.

“Mobile phones are a must have and will continue to grow but at a slower pace, with opportunities moving away from the top-end premium devices to mid-end basic products,” Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, said in a statement. “Meanwhile users continue to move away from the traditional PC (notebooks and desk-based) as it becomes more of a shared content creation tool, while the greater flexibility of tablets, hybrids and lighter notebooks address users' increasingly different demands.”

The Gartner report also said that Ultramobiles, which include tablets, hybrids and clamshells, will take over as the main driver of growth in the devices market from 2014, with a growth rate of 54 percent.

According to the report, the worldwide tablet market is forecast to grow at 47 percent with low average selling prices attracting new buyers. On the other hand, worldwide shipments of traditional PCs are forecast to total nearly 278 million units in 2014, a 7 percent decline from 2013.

In the OS market, Android is likely to continue as the OS of choice across all devices, with Gartner estimating that the platform will reach 1.1 billion users in 2014, a 26 percent increase from 2013.

“There is no doubt that there is a volume versus value equation, with Android users also purchasing lower-cost devices compared to Apple users,” Annette Zimmerman, principal analyst at Gartner, said in the statement. “Android holds the largest number of installed-base devices, with 1.9 billion in use in 2014, compared with 682 million iOS/Mac OS installed-base devices.”