Global shipments of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) reach 1.3 million in Q1 2019-- a 27.2% Y-o-Y increase, marking a return to growth for the market brought about by a surge of standalone and tethered head mounted displays (HMDs).

VR headsets make 96.6% of the combined Q1 2019 AR/VR market, with strong volumes from top vendors such as Sony, Facebook, HTC, Pico and 3Glasses. The top 5 vendors hold 65.1% of the total VR headset market.

"Facebook has promised to bring VR to the masses and it took its latest steps toward realising this vision with new standalone and tethered headset releases during the quarter," the analyst says. "The company’s new $399 standalone Oculus Quest began shipping this quarter and has enjoyed positive reviews, and its new Rift S offers an updated take on its pioneering tethered headset. These products, along with other new offerings from companies such as HTC and Valve, should position the VR market for solid growth through the rest of the year."

According to IDC, global shipments of gaming desktops and notebooks total 7.5 million units in Q1 2019, a -6.2% Y-o-Y decline brought about by inventory issues. In the meantime gaming monitors are up by 48.6% Y-o-Y, thanks to demand for second or external displays.

The quarter sees shipments of 3.5m gaming desktops, a drop of -10.6% Y-o-Y. The analyst attributes the decline to an oversupply of GPUs leading to more upgrades than replacements of desktops, as well as macroeconomic headwinds in large markets such as China. Meanwhile notebooks drop by -2% Y-o-Y as many gamers prefer to wait for the implementation of new GPUs in mobile systems.

The top 5 gaming PC vendors are HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus and Acer. Together the 5 companies hold 62.9% of the Q1 2019 gaming PC market, up from 58.4% in Q1 2018.

"Despite the recent downturn in the gaming PC market, we anticipate a rebound in the second half of the year as inventory issues clear out and new products hit store shelves," IDC says. "To date, uptake of Nvidia's RTX graphics cards has been relatively slow given the dearth of content. However, that's expected to change in the coming year as many of the AAA titles will support ray tracing, enticing gamers to purchase newer systems."

The EMEA gaming PC (covering both desktops and notebooks) market is down by -4.9% Y-o-Y in Q1 2019, with shipments reaching 2 million units-- but the full-year 2019 is to see shipments of 9m units, a 6.8% increase.

Looking into the near future, by end 2023 the market is set to total 11.4m units with a 4-year CAGR of 6.1%.

"In W. Europe, the PC gaming market was constrained by high consumer inventory after a weaker 2018 holiday season, combined with the weakening of consumer confidence as a result of political uncertainties in major economies," the analyst says. "However, PC gaming will bounce back with strong growth in H2 2019, supported by the resolution of inventory issues and the anticipated price drops of key components such as panels and memory."

According to IDC, global shipments of personal computing devices (PCDs)-- namely traditional PCs and tablets-- are to reach 392.5 million units, a -3% decline, a trend expected to continue until at least 2023.

The analyst predicts 2023 shipments will reach 367.7m units at a CAGR of -1.6%.

That said, the dollar value of the 2019 market is set to remain "roughly flat" at $237 billion despite the unit decline. This is due to a 2.6% increase in ASPs for the entire market brought about by new technologies such as thinner bezels on notebook screens, as well as ongoing demand for high-end gaming PCs. In addition, the commercial segment is set to bring an uplift for 2019 ASPs as many enterprises are replacing PCs before the early 2020 end of Windows 7 support.

According to IDC, consumer spending on technology is to reach $1.32 trillion in 2019-- a 3.5% increase over 2018 before growing to $1.43tr in 2022 with a CAGR of 3% over the 2018-2022 forecast period.

Traditional technologies (personal computing devices, mobile phones and mobile telecom services) account for over 96% of 2019 consumer spending. Mobile telecom services make over 50% of the amount throughout the forecast, followed by mobile phones. Spending growth on traditional technologies is "relatively" slow, with a CAGR of 2.4% over the forecast period.

In contrast, emerging technologies such as AR/VR headsets, drones, robotic systems, smart home devices and wearables, deliver strong growth with a 5-year CAGR of 20.6%. IDC predicts 5% of all consumer spending will go towards such technologies by 2022. Smart home devices and wearables account for over 80% of overall spending on the category in 2019, and smart home devices are also the fastest growing technology with a 5-year CAGR of 38%.

According to IDC, the EMEA traditional PC (desktops, notebooks and workstations) market is down by -2.7% Y-o-Y in Q1 2019-- a "softer" decline bringing shipments of 17. million units.

Helping improve the situation in the market is the commercial segment, since shipment growth clocks at a healthy 6% Y-o-Y with both notebooks and desktops "doing well." The same cannot be said for consumer shipments falling by 12.6% Y-o-Y as both segments see double-digit declines. In some regions, such as W. Europe, commercial growth is strong enough (10.7% Y-o-Y) to offset consumer segment  (-8.9%) to bring about overall growth (2.8%).

"An exceptional commercial performance kept the W. PC market afloat," IDC remarks. "Despite component shortages and troublesome macroeconomic conditions in some of the major economies, Windows 10 refreshes, ongoing mobility adoption, and the fulfillment of backlogs drummed up a strong commercial appetite that vendors were ultimately able to satiate."

EMEA PC shipments total 18 million in Q1 2019, Gartner reports-- a -2.2% Y-o-Y decline, with enterprise demand continuing to grow as companies move ahead with Windows 10 deployments while the consumer segment remains weak.

As the analyst puts it, consumers are neither replacing older PCs nor migrating to hybrid systems. In fact, hybrid devices are not too popular in EMEA, since users appear to prefer using larger displays.

On a global scale, Q1 2019 PC shipments total 58.5 million units, a -4.6% Y-o-Y decline. CPU shortages impact all PC businesses as vendors allocate to higher-margin business and the Chromebook segment.

“While the consumer market remained weak, the mix of product availability may have also hindered demand," the analyst remarks. "In contrast, Chromebook shipments increased by double digits compared with Q1 2018, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs. Including Chromebook shipments, the total worldwide PC market decline would have been -3.5% in Q1 2019.”#

IDC reports the global market for gaming desktops, notebooks and monitors will reach 42.1 million units in 2019-- an 8.2% increase over 2018, thanks to increasing consumer interest, the rising popularity of esports and new hardware from GPU vendors.

The market is set to grow even further in the near future, reaching 61.1m by 2023 with a CAGR of 9.8% for the 5-year forecast period.

But what makes a "gaming PC"? IDC defines the category as "desktops or notebooks that have a premium or performance-grade GPU," specifically of the mid-range or high-end Nvidia or AMD kind. The analyst excludes professional-grade GPUs, such as the Quadro or Radeon Pro lines. Similarly, gaming monitors feature a 100Hz or higher refresh rate.