Global enterprise client device shipments declined by 1.8% during the third quarter of 2014 to 1.35 million units, after registering four successive quarters of volume growth, the latest IDC report revealed.
The latest IDC Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Client Device Tracker revealed that the latest figure was clearly below the 5% growth earlier forecast for the quarter.
The decline was accompanied by the unwinding of Windows XP migration projects, as some users moved from PCs into thin client-based computing.
Delay of certain public projects, mainly within the education sector of emerging markets, also contributed to the drop during the quarter.
However, IDC anticipates that the market slowdown would pave way for a modest year for 2014 overall, with overall growth reaching 1.2% over 2013.
Several factors, such as continued penetration into education and financial services and the end of support for Windows Server 2003, is expected to help the market grow steadily all through the forecast period, ultimately bringing the global shipments to over 7.2million units by 2018.
During the quarter, thin clients accounted for 97% of enterprise client devices and managed to report 3.6% growth, while terminal clients demonstrated poor performance, partly due to the aforesaid project delays.
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Despite reporting decline since the second quarter of 2009, the thin clients without operating systems (zero clients) still captured 24.6% share among the thin client segment and are expected to restart year-over-year volume growth next year.
