This week brought news of, surprise, the PC market continuing to show sales declines. As market dynamics shift, it is clear that fewer people feel the need to go out and upgrade their current or even old PCs for today’s new technology. Most people have no need of the substantial power today’s PCs now deliver. It’s that simple.
PCs that are three to five years old deliver all the tech most people need. Specifically, we are referring to consumers here – we believe the enterprise market for PCs will continue to require access to more capabilities.
Consumers, however, aren’t simply slowing down the pace at which they upgrade PCs. They are, of course, also accelerating the pace at which they buy other technology – especially tablets, which are highly complementary additions to any consumer’s collection of gadgets. They are most especially complementary to desktops and much heavier laptops – mobility is really the name of the game and consumers continue to turn to tablets to add that mobility to their arsenals of gadgets.
This was the case throughout 2012. And as has been the case since Apple introduced the modern day tablet in 2010, the market had been dominated by iPads. Even though Android-based tablets became much more prevalent in 2012, they were not devices that truly trumped the iPad. Roughly 60 percent of tablet shipments in 2012 were iOS devices, with Android hardware making up 37 percent of sales. Android numbers include the sale of devices running modified versions of Android, such as Amazon’s Kindles.
The remaining 3 percent of the market was taken up by BlackBerry, Windows RT and a very tiny collection of other devices.
Tablet market dynamics, however, may be primed for a bit of a shift.
ABI Research has just delivered a new report projecting that the overall tablet market will grow a whopping 38 percent year over year in 2013. Tablet sales will reach, at a minimum, 150 million devices. And total tablet revenue will increase a hefty $64 billion – 28 percent better than in 2012.
Along with the increases in the overall tablet market, odds are in Android’s favor to begin seriously biting into Apple’s general market share as well as 2013 tablet share. "The tide is definitely turning toward Android-based tablets, though Apple will not slouch as it feels the competition approaching," mobile devices senior practice director Jeff Orr notes.
Most consider Samsung the likely pursuer, even though the company was mired in legal proceedings during much of 2012. Given the success Samsung has had during the past year with smartphones, it is hardly difficult to make the leap to additional tablet market share.
Orr added, "A well-executed Samsung tablet strategy could double the company's market share this year. Unfortunately, there are few ‘fast followers’ capable of emulating the ownership of technology that Samsung has, suggesting that more innovation is necessary within the Android OS that pulls tablet OEMs closer to Apple.”
The latter observation by Orr, that more innovation is needed, is a very good point. Samsung has indeed tried to innovate at the very least. The rest of the Android players are not nearly there yet, with the sorts of new features that would cause someone bent on purchasing an iPad to look elsewhere.
Meanwhile, we know what the various new Galaxy Note tablet models will deliver. The unknown as we write is what the iPad 5 will bring to the table. Very possibly, Apple will have found a way to make it thinner, while possibly also very modestly increasing horizontal screen size and remaining within the same current overall dimensions of the iPad 4.
ABI Research's findings are part of its Media Tablets, Ultrabooks and eReaders Research Service.
Edited by
Braden Becker
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