- China's economic slowdown and inflation-led drop in consumer spending will likely weigh on the global shipments of computers and smartphones in 2022, as per a Reuters story citing research firm Gartner.
- Earlier this month, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) warned against a slowdown in the PC market after two solid years. Analysts expected the chipmaker to gain market share amid odds.
- Shipments to China, the leading smartphone market, will likely shrink by 18% due to the COVID-19 curbs that halted activity in key economic hubs, including Shanghai.
- Gartner sees a 7% decline in global smartphone shipments (higher than the previous estimate of 2.2%), reflecting the impact of the supply chain crisis and the Russia-Ukraine conflict on demand.
- Gartner expects global computer shipments to drop 9.5% in 2022.
- Lenovo Group Ltd (OTC:LNVGY), HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ), and Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL) feature among the top three PC makers.
- The demand softness will weigh on companies ranging from Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) to Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), likely to report second-quarter earnings starting July.
- The smartphone and PC market immensely gained from the pandemic, which forced the world to stay home and work, study, shop, and pursue recreational activities online.
