According to IC Insights overall global 2014 personal computing device (combined desktops, notebooks, tablets and thin clients) shipments will grow by 12% to 585 million units, up from 521m in 2013.

Shipments for 2015 should rise by 9% to 639m units, while the 2012-2017 forecast period is to see a CAGR of 9.4% with shipments reaching 731m by end 2017.

The analyst says the standard PC (desktops and notebooks) market is still sluggish, with a -5% shipment decline to 298m units in 2014. Next year should see a small 1% increase to 302m.

Meanwhile 2014 tablet shipments will grow by 39% to 281m, before reaching 327m with 16% growth in 2015. Thin clients should also grow, with 2014 shipments rising by 22% to 6m units and 2015 units reaching 10m with 56% growth.

According to Juniper Research wearable device retail revenues are set to treble by 2016, before reaching $53.2 billion by 2019, with premium smartwatches and smartglasses driving sales during the forecast period.

In comparison 2014 revenues should total around $4.5bn.

However, while the numbers look big, the analyst warns consumers are still still confused by the actual use case of wearables-- meaning many are hesitant to adopt devices with functionality all too similar to that of smartphones. Thus it suggests vendors should lose the "technology first" attitude and develop devices in terms of consumer benefits.

The forecast period should see more advanced wearable technologies emerging from the enterprise and medical segments, before eventual trickle-down to the consumer segment.

According to IDC Q2 2014 W. European smart connected device (PCs, tablets and smartphones) shipments total 52.5 million units with 2.8% Y-o-Y growth, a quarter of "soft" growth and shifting device dynamics.

As the analyst puts it, Q2 2014 tablet demand is down by -12.5% Y-o-Y (reaching 7.6m units) due to longer product life cycles, as well as renewed attention to portable PCs, larger smartphones and aggressively priced low-end notebooks.

Two-in-One devices fare better, with shipments growing by 10.7% Y-o-Y.

According to IDC 2014 smartphone shipments are set to grow by 23.8% to 1.25 billion units while tablets and 2-in-1 devices will reach 2331 million units with 6.5% growth, down from previous predictions of 12.1% growth.

The analyst adds total smartphone volumes will total 1.8bn units with a  CAGR for the 2013-2018 period of 12.7%. Pushing such growth are emerging markets, as 2014 growth in mature territories is expected to crawl down to just 4.9%, compared to 32.4% in emerging markets.

"Mature markets have slowed considerably but still deliver strong revenues with ASPs over $400. Meanwhile, many emerging markets are still barreling along, but with ASPs of less than $250," IDC says. "The key for vendors now is to maintain a presence in the higher-margin mature markets, while establishing a sustainable presence within the fast-growing emerging markets. To enable this strategy, operating system companies are partnering with OEMs to provide low-cost handsets."

IDC expects emerging market smartphone volume will account for 73.5% of all shipments, with low-cost Android devices making 88.4% of said volume.