New Delhi, Jun 30 (IANS): The economic slowdown has hit all devices segments and global PC shipments are set to decline 9.5 per cent in 2022, the steepest decline of all segments this year, a Gartner report said on Thursday.

Overall, the worldwide shipments of total devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) are on pace to decline 7.6 per cent in 2022, with Greater China and Eastern Europe including Eurasia recording double-digit declines.

While global mobile phone shipments are expected to decline 7.1 per cent this year, smartphone shipments are estimated to decrease 5.8 per cent (year-over-year).

Regionally, Greater China will face the maximum brunt owing to Covid lockdowns, with smartphone shipments on pace to decline 18.3 per cent.

"A perfect storm of geopolitics upheaval, high inflation, currency fluctuations and supply chain disruptions have lowered business and consumer demand for devices across the world, and is set to impact the PC market the hardest in 2022," said Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner.

"Consumer PC demand is on pace to decline 13.1 per cent in 2022 and will plummet much faster than business PC demand, which is expected to decline 7.2 per cent year over year," he predicted.

In 2022, Gartner expects worldwide 5G phone shipments will total 710 million units. While this is an increase of 29 per cent from 2021, it is down from previous expectations.

"The growth rate is significantly down from an expected increase of 47 per cent at the start of the year, with a resulting loss of 95 million 5G phone shipments," said Atwal.

The demand for 5G phones is expected to pick up at a faster pace in 2023.

"Much of the migration to 5G will occur by default as users will replace older 4G smartphones at the end of their life cycle with 5G-compatible smartphones," the report noted.