Worldwide shipment of connected devices, which include PCs, smartphones, and tablets grew 27.4% during the second quarter of 2012 compared to corresponding quarter in 2011, while the shipment grew 2.8% over Q1, according a report by IDC.
In terms of revenue, total market increased 16.3% year-over-year reaching $131.5bn while the revenue recorded a 2.7% quarter-over-quarter decline.
In the US market, both unit shipment and revenue declined both a year-over-year and a quarter-over-quarter, showing the difficult time not only for PCs but also smart connected devices as a whole.
During the second quarter, the unit shipments in the US fell 7.8% sequentially and 5% annually to 47.4 million units.
Connected devices revenue also dropped to $24.8bn, recording a sequential decline of 10.3% and 8.6% annual decline.
According to the report, the smart connected devices market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14% from 2012 to 2016.
Smartphones, which account over 59% of smart connected device shipments in 2012, will grow at 15.8% per year comprising 63% of device shipments in 2016.
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Tablets will register fastest growth among connected devices, accounting about 13% by shipment by 2016 from 10% share this year which could have its impact on PC shipment, reducing PC share from 31% in 2012 to 24% in 2016.
Asia/Pacific currently leads in total PC and smartphone shipments, but tablet shipments are focused more towards mature markets.
IDC Clients and Displays programme vice president Bob O’Donnell said that the recent shipment data clearly shows the arrival of multi-device era, where individuals are buying and using multiple devices per person, most often with different combinations of operating systems.
"The implication of this development on application developers, device makers, Web service providers, businesses, and even individuals is profound," O’Donnell said.
According to IDC forecast, worldwide shipments of smart connected devices will rise 27.4% over 2011, reaching nearly 1.2 billion units in 2012, and grow to 1.4 billion in 2013, recording 19.2% year-over-year increase.
In terms of shipment connected device units will surpass 2 billion units in 2016.
