PC, Tablet, Mobile Phone Shipments to Rise 4.5% in 2013 -- Gartner - Wall Street Journal

        By Ben Fox Rubin      

Combined worldwide shipments of major consumer devices--personal computers, tablets and mobile phones--are expected to grow 4.5% this year from 2012, driven by a shift to lower-priced devices in nearly all categories, according to industry researcher Gartner Inc. (IT).

Device shipments are expected to reach 2.32 billion units this year, with growing tablet and mobile phone sales more than making up for declining sales of PCs.

Tablet shipments are set to rise 53% this year, reaching 184 million units, then 263 million units next year.

The mobile phone market will continue to experience steady growth, though Gartner claimed that the opportunity for high average selling price smartphones is now ending. Growth is expected to come from mid-tier smartphones in mature markets and low-end Android smartphones in emerging markets. Total mobile phone shipments are expected to rise 3.7% this year to 1.8 billion units, then reach 1.9 billion in 2014.

Worldwide shipments of traditional PCs are forecast to drop 11% to 303 million this year, and fall again in 2014 to 282 million.

Android will remain the leading device operating system, and it's on pace to account for 38% of shipments this year. The Windows operating system is projected to decline 4.3% in 2013 due to the decline in traditional PC sales, but should return to growth in 2014, Gartner said.

Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@wsj.com

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