The DISTREE 2020 keynote by CONTEXT global managing director Adam Simon gives retrospective on the channel in 2019-- the year of Windows 10, as the OS gives a huge boost to the PC market and related industries.

The channel sees 3.3% growth in 2019, "very solid" results with desktop PCs growing by an impressive 10.7%. The mobile computing category is up by 4.7%, while "other" categories follow at 2.7%. Many new categories, such as smart home and wearables, are also growing at a high rate, while telecoms are facing a slowdown. This is due to one main reason, which is the drop of Huawei smartphone sales through the channel. The printing category remains on the decline, as are some enterprise categories including storage.

As the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) affects over 100000+ people across 80 countries, Futuresource predicts poor results for the global CE industry in Q1 2020, with supply chain chain disruptions leading to difficulties in product delivery.

The analyst says the problem may extend into Q2 2010, but pent-up demand might somewhat, if not wholly, compensate for the difficulties experienced in H1 2020. Consumption patterns should shift their seasonality. However, Futuresource says the CE market will see a full year revenue decline of -2-5% in 2020.

In the long term, Futuresource says CE makers should look into diversifying supply chains, as the coronavirus highlights the risks associated with over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing.

The ongoing spread of the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) leads IDC to lower its 2020 forecast for personal computing devices (PCDs)-- predicting global shipments will drop by -9% to 374.2 million units.

The PCD forecast covers desktops, notebooks, workstations and tablets. It suggests numbers will improve on the long-term, if slightly, as shipments should should reach 377.2m by 2024 with a 5-year CAGR of 0.2%. The 2020 decline is the result of two significant factors. The coronavirus has already been mentioned, but one also has to keep in mind the Windows 7 to Windows 10 transition creates tougher Y-o-Y growth comparisons.

Global shipments of devices-- PCs, tablets and mobile phones-- are set to total 2.16 billion units in 2020, Gartner reports, a "slight recovery" of 0.9% over 2019 shipments reaching 2.15bn units.

One driver for such improvement is the increased availability of 5G smartphones. In fact, the analyst predicts the global mobile phone market will grow by 1.7% in 2020, if thanks to Greater China and emerging markets in Asia/Pacific. 5G models should account for 12% of 2020 mobile phone shipments, before reaching 43% in 2022 as prices decrease, 5G coverage increases and customers have better experience with such devices.