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September 03, 2013

Tablet Shipments Expected to Dip Slightly in 2013

There is very little doubt that mobile devices are as popular as they have ever been. What might be a little bit harder to figure out for industry analysts is just how popular one mobile device is when compared to another. One industry analyst, International Data Corporation (IDC) seems to think that interest in tablets is starting to wane. The company actually slightly lowered its recent predictions when it comes to tablet sales in 2013.

That isn’t to say that tablet shipments are suddenly going to fall off a cliff. IDC still expects shipments to hit 227.4 million units by the end of the year. That is down from its first estimates of roughly 229.3 million shipments by the end of 2013. It should be pointed out that even if shipments are a bit lower than first expected, they are still more than 57 percent higher than they were in 2012.

The dip in shipments also doesn’t mean that tablets are going to be popular moving forward. IDC still thinks that by 2017, there will be more than 407 million units shipping every year. The company did say that the U.S. will share the market more than was first expected. It appears that tablets are also starting to share the mobile device market with smartphones more than was first expected.

It makes some sense that smartphones are going to be making more inroads than first expected. More phones are being produced that are being dubbed “phablets.” This kind of phone has a screen that is so big, it can be hard to tell the difference between the device and a tablet. With smartphones that can do everything tablets can do, but also make calls and connect from almost anywhere thanks to cellular networks, tablets are losing a bit of their cache.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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