After adding up the numbers, and dividing by its shoe size, IDC said that the thin client market contracted this year. It also predicted that a return to growth could be years away.

The reason for the shrinkage is not really much to do with the technology. More the fact that economic and currency pressures have damaged people’s will to buy.

As a result, for the whole of 2015, the analyst expects that just 5.1 million units will be shipped, down six per cent on 2014.

“Combined with some persistent factors that negatively affected the market, including budget constraints that delayed major shipments in Asia/Pacific, the emerging markets continued to lag behind mature markets in terms of shipments and projected growth rates going forward,” IDC said.

“Although the market is increasingly accepting of virtualised client computing, devices such as repurposed PCs and even Chromebooks in some cases, pose viable threats to mainstream thin client purchases.”

The market is on track to “return to steady growth”, but not until beyond 2016, IDC added.