Tablet sales speeding up while PC uptake slows

Thanks to strong demand for Apple's iPad and competing devices together with Amazon's Kindle Fire, worldwide shipments of tablet computers are inclined to grow faster than expected this year, in line with a newly revised forecast from a number one market research group.

IDC said shipments within the last three months of 2011 were higher than expected. Subsequently, the research group now projects shipments of 106 million in 2012, up from its previous forecast of nearly 88 million.

The hot figure represents a 54 per cent increase from the nearly 69 million devices shipped in 2011.

For the reason that iPad's debut in 2010, millions of individuals have flocked to those easy-to-use, easy-to-carry devices to observe movies, play games and atone for the most recent news and books.

Many businesses have also embraced them. Some airline pilots, for example, are ditching heavy flight manuals for iPads to make planes lighter and save fuel. Schools also are beginning to replace paper textbooks with electronic versions on tablets. Election workers in Oregon used iPads to aid disabled voters.

The upward thrust of tablet computers comes at a time when sales of traditional personal computers are slowing, particularly among consumers within the US and other industrialised countries. Another research group, Gartner, has forecast that PC shipments will grow at a comparatively weak 4 per cent this year as products fail to excite consumers the way in which tablets have.

People and businesses are still buying PCs, which could run multiple programs side by side at the same screen and feature keyboards more suited to extensive typing than on-screen ones available for tablets. Gartner expects shipments of nearly 370 million PCs this year, about 3.5 times what IDC projects for tablets.

But traditional PC makers have sparked much in their growth by turning to emerging markets. In industrialised markets, there's evidence that individuals are delaying replacements for his or her years-old PCs and purchasing tablets instead.

"Frankly, most are only anticipating a compelling reason to upgrade," said Tom Mainelli, IDC's research director for mobile connected devices.

That reason could come late this year when Microsoft releases a brand new version of Windows designed to support PCs and tablets. Successful PCs running Windows 8 will likely mimic tablets with slim designs, longer battery life and the flexibility to show on instantly, Mainelli said.

Those qualities helped Apple dominate a put it up for sale helped create.

Apple sold greater than 40 million iPads last year, including 15 million within the holiday quarter. High demand is predicted when a 3rd version, with a sharper screen and a faster processing chip, goes on sale this week. Apple already has stopped taking advance orders and said customers should expect a wait of 2 to a few weeks for purchases made through its online store.

Although some researchers estimate that Apple has greater than 60 per cent of the marketplace for tablet computers, rivals have done well.

The Kindle Fire came out in November with a value tag of US$200 ($245), compared with US$500 and up for the iPad on the time. The hearth has a smaller screen and less features, but it's ok for plenty of consumers. IDC estimates that Amazon.com shipped 4.7 million Kindle Fires by year's end (Amazon doesn't release figures).

Mainelli said he initially expected the hearth, which runs on a modified version of Google's Android system, to take sales faraway from other Android tablets. Instead, the Fire's success could have helped other Android products, too, including Samsung's Galaxy devices and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet.

"It sort of feels your entire attention that the fireplace launch garnered raised awareness of media tablets generally, and lots of vendors benefited from this increased awareness," he said.

The 68.7 million tablets shipped in 2011 represents a 9 per cent increase from IDC's forecast of 63.3 million and is set 3.5 times the nineteen.4 million shipped in 2010. IDC says 28.2 million tablet computers were shipped within the final three months of the year.

TAKING TABLETS
* 106 million devices forecast to be shipped in 2012.
* Up from 69 million devices shipped last year.

- AP

By Anick Jesdanun