Worldwide AI PC, GenAI smartphone shipments to total 295 million Units in 2024  

Artificial Intelligence dominated the tech space in 2023, and it is now making inroads into hardware in 2024. From a mere 29 million units in 2023, the worldwide shipments of AI PCs and generative AI (GenAI) smartphones is projected to total 295 million units by the end of 2024, according to research firm Gartner, Inc. Of this, 240 million are estimated to be GenAI smartphones and 54.5 million will be AI PCs. This will represent 22% of basic and premium smartphones and 22% of all PCs in 2024.

“The rapid adoption of on-device GenAI capabilities and AI processors will eventually become a standard requirement for technology vendors,” said Ranjit Atwal, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “This ubiquity will pose challenges for vendors in differentiating themselves from competitors, making it harder to create unique selling points and drive increased revenues.”

The PC market, after 8 consecutive quarters of decline, witnessed slight increase in the fourth quarter of 2023. And in 2024, the on-device AI is likely to rejuvenate the marketing of PCs and help sustain existing anticipated replacement cycles, negating some of the negative effects of a disruptive socioeconomic environment. However, the integration of AI into PCs is not expected to drive end-user spending beyond anticipated price increases. Business device buyers will demand compelling reasons to invest. As a result, Gartner estimates overall PC shipments will total 250.4 million units in 2024, a 3.5% increase from 2023.

Gartener also predicts that GenAI smartphones will not bolster smartphone demand until 2027. “The enhancements to smartphones evolve the current experiences with cameras and voice integration, but these capabilities are expected by users rather than demonstrating a new groundbreaking functionality. Users have the same expectation for the functionality of GenAI on their smartphone. They are unlikely to pay a premium for GenAI smartphones without the availability of any groundbreaking applications,” says Atwal.

The catalyst for transformative shifts in user experience lies in the advancement of smaller versions of large language models (LLMs) specifically tailored for smartphones. This evolution will transform smartphones into even more intuitive companions capable of comprehending and responding to human language and visual cues, which will elevate the overall user experience to new heights. Overall, in 2024, worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to grow 4.2%, totalling 1.2 billion units year over year.

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