Thin client shipments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in Q213 increased marginally by 0,1% year-on-year to 407 417 units, according to results published by International Data Corporation (IDC) in its EMEA Quarterly Enterprise Client Device Tracker.
After the weak first quarter of 2013, the thin client market struggled with a contraction in demand across the EMEA region.
Although Western Europe (WE) showed a moderate one-digit growth in Q213, the region as a whole barely broke even, due to extremely weak shipments in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMA). IDC expects a revival of thin client shipments in H2 2013, thus achieving a moderate 1,9% annual volume growth in 2013.
HP and Dell dominated the EMEA thin client market and finished the second quarter of 2013 with 30,5% and 24,1% market shares, respectively.
After the shipment slowdown in the beginning of the year that was due to high inventory surpluses, NComputing’s shipments increased by 31,7% year on year, allowing it to finish in fifth place with 6,2% market volume share – the highest in the vendor’s history.
The all-in-one (AIO) thin client market performed healthily in Q2 2103, almost doubling its volume of shipments year on year. The share of AIO thin clients increased from 2,7% in Q1 2012 to about 5,3% of the total thin client market in Q2 2013, based on shipments of 21 556 units.
In value terms, AIO market growth was even stronger – with share jumping from 5,4% to 9,7% to reach $13,31-million. Samsung and LG made the largest contribution to this growth, accounting for a combined market share of almost 80%.
“Despite the moderate volume growth in EMEA in H1 2013, we expect thin clients shipments to increase in H2 2013, boosted by demand from the education sector and end-of-year PC replacements resulting from the end of support for Windows XP,” says Oleg Sidorkin, a senior research analyst at IDC.
“In 2013, the EMEA thin client market will grow in value by about 10% year on year, due to robust demand for new, more expensive models and accelerating shipments of AIO thin clients.”
In Q2 2013, Western Europe (WE) recorded a moderate 4,5% year-on-year growth in thin client shipments to 340 331 units.
For the same period, the CEMA thin client market declined sharply by 17,5% to 67 086 units.
Russia, Rest of CEE, and Rest of MEA posted the strongest declines, due to delayed projects and keen competition from commercial desktop PCs.
IDC expects EMEA thin client shipments to continue to grow in H2 2013; the WE market will increase 5,9% year on year, while CEMA market growth will reach about 4,2%.