Tablet Sales Turn Out to Have Been Weak

With all the chatter surrounding the tablet market, one would expect glowing sales figures to hit the web, but it looks like this isn't happening, at least not as far as the first quarter is concerned.

The past month has been quite rich in news and reports concerning a tablet or another, whether they have already been released or not.

With the Apple iPad 2 making rounds and Android-loaded models, as well as HP's webOS device, up and about, it was not a surprise that this was so.

Still, though the segment does appear to be picking up as far as shipments go, the first quarter, it turns out, was not as impressive.

In fact, sales of slates during this year's (2011) January-March period were below what analysts had expected.

Shipments into sales channels ended up falling by 28% on a sequential basis in Q1, with worldwide units numbering 7.2 million according to IDC.

Still, this didn't prevent this market analyst firm from raising the forecast for 2011 from 50.4 million to 53.5 million.

"Although media tablet sales were not as high as expected in Q1 2011 due to slower consumer demand, overall economic conditions, and supply-chain constraints, we believe with the entrance of competitive new devices in second half of 2011, the market will sell close to 53 million units for the year and continue to grow long-term," said Jennifer Song, IDC research analyst.

All in all, the media coverage of tablets might have painted a somewhat overinflated image of the demand for slates.

Nevertheless, shipments are still expected to grow, despite the challenges of the early weeks of 2011.

"Like the PC market, media tablets had a bit of a challenging quarter in Q1, as concerns about general macroeconomic issues and the post-holiday letdown took a toll on demand. We expect the rest of the year to be much stronger, but we believe vendors who continue to focus on the telco channel for distribution will face serious challenges,” said Bob O'Donnell, IDC vice president of clients and displays.