14 DAY TRIAL // Back when tablets weren't expected to have any competition, it was expected that they would ship in the hundreds of millions this year.
Now, however, the forecast has been reduced a bit. Sure, they will still sell in the hundreds of millions, but not to the same degree.
IDC feels that the market will reach 227.4 million in 2013 and grew to 407 million by 2017.
It won't go faster because there weren't any major product announcements lately, and consumers are expected to adopt 5-inch smartphones more, as well as wearable gadgets like Google Glass and smartwatches whenever they appear.
"On-year growth is beginning to slow as the tablet market approaches early stages of maturity," said Jitesh Ubrani, research analyst for the Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.
"Much of the long-term growth will be driven by countries like China where projected growth rates will be consistently higher than the worldwide average."