180 Million Tablets Will Sell in 2014

There has already been much talk of the tablet market and, while the general consensus is that only good times lie ahead, at least for a while, not many numerical estimates have been made, so Corning figured it would provide one.

Tablets could be seen as one of the more surprising inventions of the past decade, and this is because of more than the idea itself.

Indeed, the tablet form factor is not really a new one, but it took time for it to become practical because convenient multi-touch solutions are arguably recent developments themselves.

Back at the start of 2010, when rumors about Apple's iPad were getting more numerous than ever, skepticism was still the norm.

Even after the product was released, PC makers still didn't think their netbooks had anything to fear or, indeed, that slates would prove to be so popular.

Nevertheless, eventually, companies were forced to acknowledge that customers didn't care about physical keyboards as much as they had expected.

Thus it was that many new slates and platforms for them, like NVIDIA's Tegra 2, debuted over the past year. Products have also been selling, reaching a figure of about 20 million in 2010.

Corning's newest press release has a section that places slates, at least those using cover glass, in the category of Gorilla Class opportunities, meaning that their shipments will increase massively in the near future.

For those that want numbers, this new market will grow from the aforementioned 20 million to about 180 million in 2014.

“What makes the tablet market so appealing for us is that all of these devices will likely require a highly durable, scratch-resistant piece of cover glass,” said James P. Clappin, president, Corning Glass Technologies Group.

“The unparalleled surface quality and scratch resistance supports both new edge-to-edge design trends and improved optical viewing experiences.”