Thin clients in EMEA had a ‘brisk’ 2014 with 7.9% YoY growth (1.97 million units shipped) – but the market is now settling down.
By the end of 2015, IDC expects the EMEA thin client market to return to lower growth. Global factors boosted shipments last year, such as Windows XP end-of-life and postponed commercial PC upgrades. However, these are now over, and the market is seeking new drivers to sustain growth momentum.
The pace of shipments in Western Europe in Q1-Q3’14 will be hard to match for vendors this year. It is expected that the market will shrink slightly in the first half of the year, returning to ‘moderate’ growth in Q3.
The outlook is still uncertain in the CEE sub-region. Central Europe is showing healthy growth, but there has been negative pressure on thin client demand due to the economic and political situations in Russia and Ukraine. Russia’s share of the total EMEA market fell from 9% in 2013 to 5% in 2015, and the decline continues. Russia is not expected to return to growth before 2016.
