Following four consecutive quarters of growth, worldwide shipments of thin and terminal clients were down 1.8% YoY in Q3’14, according to IDC. Shipments totalled 1.35 million units, significantly lower than the forecast 5% growth, said the firm.
Slowing Windows XP migrations marked the slowdown, which had been contributing to growth as some users switched from PCs to thin clients. Certain public projects were also delayed, particularly in emerging markets’ education sectors. While this had a negative effect on the market in Q3, the effect in 2015 will be positive.
The market slowdown will lead to a modest year for 2014 overall, with YoY growth of 1.2%. However, steady growth to 2018 should be achieved. Several factors will assist with this, including continued penetration into key verticals (education, financial services) and the end of support for Windows Server 2003.
97% of enterprise client devices were thin clients. Despite the overall slowdown, these products still grew 3.6% YoY. Terminal clients fared more poorly, partly due to the above project delays.
Zero clients saw their first YoY decline since Q2’09, but retained a 24.6% share among the thin client segment. Volume growth is expected to return in 2015.
