THINKS 500 MILLION TABLETS SHIP BY 2016
POSTED BY DAN YOUNG
A disruptive technology changes the way a market behaves. Some say Apple created a market for tablet computers in 2010. Others say they touched on a heretofore unidentified need. Whatever the case, since Apple released the first real tablet computer in 2010, the technology marketplace will never be the same.
Since the release of the iPad, tablet sales appear to be eating into the laptop market and not the smartphone market. Gardner recently downgraded their expected laptop sales growth from 10.5% from their original projection of 15.9% in 2011, and to 13.6% from 14.8% in 2012. Other studies by Gardner and peer research groups have verified the same trends; DXYs primary research aligns with the expectations set by these national research firms.
The huge growth in tablet sales is not solely at the expense of laptops; the market itself is expanding at an astonishing rate. Depending upon the source, we have heard the total market expands by 5% to 8% per month. Combine the various market drivers and many research groups, Infinite Research, IHS and others, predict 100 million plus tablet units will ship in 2015.
Using our internal research combined with that from other sources, we feel that the total number of tablets that will have shipped by the end of December 2015 will exceed 500 million units, possibly getting closer to 550 million units. The bottom line is that tablet shipments will accelerate and the platform will be a permanent fixture in our daily lives.
