Prague, March 18, 2013 – The volume of thin client shipments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in 2012 increased by 9.2% year on year to more than 1.7 million units, according to results published by market research and advisory company IDC. In the coming year, IDC expects thin client shipments to maintain stable 6.2% growth over 2013.

"Although commercial desktop PC shipments are shrinking, the thin client market remains buoyant," says Oleg Sidorkin, a senior research analyst at IDC. "Vendors now offer attractive thin client solutions that meet the needs of different vertical markets, such as healthcare, banking, education, or retail. Increased security concerns, easier administration, lower maintenance costs, and lower power consumption are among the main reasons why companies may choose thin clients over traditional PCs."

Standalone thin clients accounted for 96.2% of the total thin client shipments in EMEA in 2012. Although interest in all-in-one thin client models has been increasing, they remain niche products in terms of market volume. HP and Dell dominated the EMEA thin client market in 2012, shipping more than 55% of the region's total volume.

"Growth potential on the thin client market is still high in the EMEA region. We expect total thin client shipments in 2013 to grow fastest in France, Germany, and Russia – at more than 10%," says Sidorkin. "This growth is driven by demand from healthcare entities, financial institutions, and public-sector customers, which are looking for a centralized desktop environment with high level of security and reliability. As the lifecycle of the current PC installed base among many companies is coming to an end, more organizations will consider thin clients as a viable alternative to desktop PCs in the coming years."

About the Research

IDC's EMEA Quarterly Enterprise Client Devices Tracker provides market size data for thin client and terminal client technologies in an easy-to-use Excel Pivot Table format. The tracker covers three major regions (Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa) and includes 24 countries. The enterprise client devices tracker quantifies quarterly shipments and customer revenues segmented by vendor, country, category, form factor, channel, and operating system.

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