14 DAY TRIAL // Word on the street has it tablet sales aren't what they used to be. Some have blamed it on market saturation, others to advent of phablets, products that apparently have started to slowly cannibalize tablets, but new research coming from highly respected ABI Research indicates tablets are still going strong.
The only constant remaining in the equation is tablets and smartphones are gnawing away at the PC industry and by the looks of it they aren't planning to stop anytime soon.
The new research posted by the company indicates that in 2014, overall tablet sales are expected to hit the 200 million mark. These constitutes a 20% increase compared to the number of items sold in 2013, when the industry managed to ship 166 million products on a global scale.
And if you’re wondering what company is going to see an important revenue flow coming in, the answer is Intel. The chip maker is expected to have a great year in 2014.
Remember that at some point, we told you Intel has made public its intentions of shipping up to 40 million tablets bundled with their processor tech this year, and according to ABI Research they have a pretty good shot of doing just that.
“If Intel is able to achieve its goal of 40 million tablets with its processor technology, the silicon vendor will suddenly become a significant player,” explained ABI Research Jeff Orr.
“One of the greatest opportunities in 2014 is for development, manufacturing and marketing of tablets on a regional and even local level, which snakes up the vendor ecosystem of the past four years. Partnerships and deals struck this year will be key for the next few years of tablet adoption.”
ABI also notes that the tablet market will be still led by North America and the predilection for Apple’s iPad will keep revenue flowing in. However, research expects to see shipments drop below in the 50% in the US market.
This change comes about due to continuous efforts from brand vendors like Apple and Samsung, that are struggling to expand to other markets across the globe, too.
It’s impressive how predictions can change in a few months. Back in January IDC forecasted that the growth of the tablet market would soon come to an end.
An argument for this was that “markets such as the US are reaching high levels of consumer saturation and while emerging markets continue to show strong growth this has not been enough to sustain the dramatic worldwide growth rates of years past.”
Now it appears, emerging markets are actually pushing more important growth than it was previously thought and tablets will be continuing to thrive throughout the year.