Following three years of growth, thin client shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) have declined by 4,2% year-on-year in Q1 2013 to 406 138 units, according to results published by IDC in its EMEA Quarterly Enterprise Client Device Tracker.
Despite the weak quarter, IDC expects thin client shipments to grow 3% in volume terms in 2013 and post a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7,3% through 2017.
HP and Dell dominated the EMEA thin client market, finishing the first quarter of 2013 with 32,6% and 25,5% market shares, respectively. Samsung, which increased Q1 2013 shipments by almost 50% year on year, was one of the most dynamic vendors in the region.
“Although thin client shipments declined in the first quarter of 2013, EMEA market volume has increased by 5,4% year on year to $135,2-million,” says Oleg Sidorkin, a senior research analyst at IDC. “The growth can be attributed to stronger demand for new, more expensive thin client models and a greater share of all-in-one (AIO) thin clients.”
The share of AIO thin clients increased from 2,9% in Q1 2012 to about 4.0% of the total thin client market in Q1 2013. In value terms, this growth is even more pronounced – AIO value share went up from 5,7% to 7,5% year-on-year.
In Western Europe (WE), 325,532 thin clients were shipped in Q1 2013, representing a moderate year-on-year decline of 4%. Thin client shipments in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) exhibited a drop of 5,2% in Q1 2013 from the same quarter in 2012, with shipment volume reaching 80 606 units.
The thin client market in EMEA posted better results than the commercial PC market, which is in the grip of a prolonged stagnation. Among other factors, thin clients cannibalised some sales of new desktop PCs and notebooks. IDC expects thin client shipments to revive by the end of 2013, to record year-on-year growth of 2,5% in WE and 4,6% in CEMA.