As the tablet market continues to expand, a recent report projects worldwide shipments will reach around 380 million a year by 2017, an analysis that would see Apple and its counterparts ramping up the capabilities of iPads and their equivalents. As a result however, the PC market has suffered a dramatic slump in sales.
Tablets have become increasingly popular over the last couple of years and continue to be adopted by businesses and young professionals for their ease of use and convenient size which makes them mobile. Such is the capabilities of the innovative tablets, some analysts in the technology industry class them as a personal computer. Subsequently, shipments of personal computers declined by 1.4 per cent in the worldwide market and by six per cent in the United States.
It emerged last year that the iPad2 was a popular choice for students in the Medical profession and Apple was one step further by offering discounted rates to schools in the United States to adopt the tablets for educational purposes. Apples new software, the so called iBooks is also set for release with the iPad later this year and the Cupertino-based company intend the application will enhance the learning capacity of students by providing interactive functions that make education more engaging.
However, iBooks has taken some early criticism by an internet panel that claim the interactive functions in iBooks is virtually non-existent and does offer any benefits over hard copy textbooks. The reason for the disappointing software is principally because the learning tools were created by writers who are more accustomed to writing books. In light of the report however, iPad users can expect Apple to address the software issues and ask developers to improve the capabilities of iBook so that it is more engaging and encourages kids to learn.
Research group NPD published a report earlier this week suggesting the emerging tablet market will grow from a 36 percent share of worldwide tablet shipments in 2011 to 46 percent in 2017. Richard Shim, a senior analyst at NPD commented:
“The emerging market opportunity for tablets has been flying under the radar mainly because the device brands aren’t household names and there are concerns regarding the sustainability of the market.”
Shim went on to say that “some of the better known brands” have begun investing in developing regions. “We expect this to not only continue, but to flourish as competition improves,” he continued.
The analysis found that China and Asia Pacific currently have the highest tablet sales, though it is expected heavily populated countries with an expanding economy like Brazil, India and Russia will experience significant growth in the next couple of years. According to NPD, it will be the low-end pricing that will be most crucial to opening up growth in those regions, therefore expect sales of the Amazon Kindle to receive a boost.
Apple is expected to contribute strongly towards tablet sales with its iPad line-up, particularly with the anticipated advancements in technology they have already given us a glimpse of with the iphone4S. Furthermore, the American multi-media giants are expected to release a downsized version of the iPad later this year which is anticipated to be aimed at the low-end market in an attempt to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire.
Assuming that NPD’s estimates are correct, the global tablet market is set to surpass the current PC market in the next five years. It was estimated earlier this month that worldwide PC sales hit a total of 353 million units last year, a small climb of just 0.5 percent from 2010. A separate analysis showed the PC market experienced a quarterly gain when the iPad was counted and a loss without it. Apple accounted for 17 per cent of worldwide PC shipments with a combined 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs.
The increasing popularity of tablets is believed to be a result of improvements to screen resolution and processor performance, and with the tablet wars hotting up consumers can expect further advancements of the technology. NPD believes tablets with displays allowing for pixel densities of between 250ppi to 300ppi will make up roughly 30 percent of shipments by 2017. As tablet makers increase specifications for their devices, the market will likely split into “premium” and “value” category tablets.
It is reported that Apples third-generation iPad will have a pixel density of 254ppi and new CEO Tim Cook announced last week that he already views “limited function” tablets such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire as being in a different category from the iPad. Apple are expected to launch the iPad3 sometime in March or the beginning of April and demand is likely to set even more new records.
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