According to a report by market analysts at IDC, worldwide sales
of thin clients are showing a 90% increase but Western Europe is
seeing much greater growth at 268%.
Of the 175 US businesses polled over their use or planned use of
thin client technology, 75% of respondents said that thin clients
are an acceptable alternative for some PC users. More than half of
these say they have already replaced their PCs with thin clients.
Reliability was the main reason behind their choice, followed by
ease of use and performance.
Thin client systems are often less flexible than PC systems but
tend to be far easier to support because of their server-centric
architecture. According to Bruce Stephen, vice-president of IDC's
personal systems research, they allow easier access to Windows
applications, are cost-effective, easy to install and secure.
Smaller companies see thin clients as a way to improve IT
management and reduce desktop complexity, medium-sized firms cited
centralised control and ease of management, whereas large
organisations were buying them to reduce total cost of
ownership.
The report indicates that different-sized enterprises specified
different reasons for their purchase.