In-Stat: Tablet shipments will rise to 250 million by 2017

Apple currently has the market cornered on tablets, constantly selling millions of iPads quarterafter quarter. Other tablet makers are struggling to keep up, with most others selling by the thousands (if even).

And then there are those that arrive with a lot of hype and are dead within in weeks. (See: HP TouchPad.) Based on all of this, the future for the tablet industry might look bleak with only one solid manufacturer.

But all of that is expected to change within the next five years. A recent survey from research firmIn-Stat argues that tablet shipments will topple 250 million units by 2017.

That assertion seems plausible as that gives other tablet makers some time to catch up (particularly those working within the Android ecosystem) and figure out what is missing in this market to make things competitive.

More importantly, the tablet market is expected to grow as tablet manufacturers are expected to lower prices from the standard $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi-only tablet at some point. That point-in-time could be very soon given the recent example of the now $99 TouchPad. That product was actually considered by many to be the second best tablet available (after the iPad), yet it could not sell at $499, $399 nor even $299.

More highlights from the study:

• The 9-inch to 11-inch form factor is will be the dominant form factor with 56 percent of the market by 2017
• iOS and Android are expected to control 90 percent of the market share with Windows in a distant 3rd place
• Wireless providers could have a tremendous impact on tablet demand
• In the consumer market, tablets are competing against all computing devices — not just PCs
• Expect more and better things from Samsung, Motorola, BlackBerry, LG, and HTC

Most strikingly, In-Stat believes that none of the leading OS platforms will likely cause “the failure of several companies in the tablet market due to lack of application support.”

Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist for In-Stat, explained in a statement:

The tablet market and its associated ecosystem are still evolving. Over the next few generations we will see more differentiation between devices that are targeting different market segments and usage models. In addition, competitive device and service pricing will bring tablets into the mainstream consumer and enterprise markets.

Tablets are joining an array of smart-connected devices that allow users almost unlimited access to content and communications. These new devices mark a significant change in the value change of the electronics industry where the content and applications are now the key differentiators and innovation drivers.

The ball should get rolling more seriously next year. A recent report from DigiTimes posited that non-Apple tablet shipments are expected to rise by 134 percent in 2012. Specifically, DigiTimessuggested that shipments of Android tablets will surge to 44-45 million units shipped, while Apple’s iPad shipments will nearly double to 54-55 million units in 2012.

Source : zdnet

Tablet shipments to near 250 million in 2017

Tablet shipments are set to explode in the coming years, a new study from research firm In-Stat has found.

According to the company's estimates, worldwide tabletshipments will approach 250 million units in 2017. The firm says iOS and Android will secure over 90 percent of the tablet space between them, while Windows will come in "a distant third."

If In-Stat's shipments numbers turn out to be accurate, it would make for significant growth in the tablet market. Earlier this year, DigiTimes cited market watchers who claimed iPad shipments will reach between 35 million and 36 million this year. Android tablet shipments, those market observers claim, will hit about 19 to 20 million this year. Next year, those figures will grow to approximately 55 million for the iPad and about 45 million for Android devices.

That report followed claims earlier this year from research firm Strategy Analytics, which said tablet sales could hit $49 billion in 2015. In 2009, the research firm noted, tablet sales were essentially zero, marking meteoric growth in that market.

However, as In-Stat pointed out in its study today, only companies that jump on the bandwagon will be successful in the coming years. The company said that firms who do not support "one of the leading OS platforms" will face demise "due to lack of application support."

That already appears to be the case. Last week, HP announced that it was discontinuing its WebOS platform and TouchPad tablet. That device, which came with a 9.7-inch display and only launched last month, was dogged by sluggish demand. In fact, AllThingsD reported last week that big-box retailer Best Buy was only able to sell a fraction of its inventory of TouchPads.

Aside from running the right operating system, In-Stat warns that vendors must also remember to offer up large displays in their future slates. The company said that by 2017, tablets with displays ranging in size from 9 inches to 11 inches will own 56 percent of the market.

Tablets Driving Internet-Enabled Device Shipments Past PCs: Report

Shipments of Internet-enabled devices such as televisions and video-game consoles will exceed those of PCs by 2013, according to a new report by research firm IHS.


“These new figures are the latest evidence that the Internet is not just for PCs anymore,” Jordan Selburn, principal analyst for consumer platforms at IHS, wrote in an Aug. 12 statement. “Increasingly, each Internet-enabled electronics device is vying to become the center of what is known as the digital living room, aggregating content throughout the home.”


IHS included media tablets in its calculations, but excluded smartphones, which the firm tracks under the metric of wireless communications equipment. “Although IHS officially designates tablets as wireless devices,” read the firm’s Aug. 12 note concerning the results, “they are being included in the Internet-enabled consumer electronics category because of the key role they are playing in the market for the connected home.”


Video-game consoles ranked at the top of Internet-enabled devices sold in 2010, with 50.5 million units, followed by televisions with 40 million units. In 2011, though, IHS believes devices like the Xbox will find themselves toppled by media tablets, which boast projected shipments of 61.9 million units. Last year, tablets shipped 19.7 million units.


By 2013, shipments of Internet-enabled devices will reach 503.6 million units, surpassing PCs with 433.7 million units shipped.       


Certainly tablets have arisen to challenge PCs as the center of most users’ computing lives. “The iPad has successfully integrated the functionality of a slimmed-down notebook into a media-player form factor,” Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall wrote in a July research note, “and has effectively rendered a significant portion of the Mac (and potentially the iPhone) product family obsolete. This presents a serious problem as iPhones and Macs generated 64 [percent] of Apple’s total revenue in [calendar year] 2010.”


Interest in tablets could also crimp purchases of traditional PCs. During Apple’s last earnings call, COO Tim Cook even acknowledged the effect of the iPad on his own company’s products. “Some customers choose to purchase an iPad instead of a new Mac during the quarter,” he told media and analysts. “But even more customers chose to buy an iPad over a Windows PC. … There’s a lot more of the PC Windows business to cannibalize than the Mac.”


In its report, IHS also suggested that Blu-ray players and set-top boxes would join tablets are the Internet-enabled devices primed for most rapid expansion in coming years. 


Source : eweek

Amazon Content to Spur $249 Android Tablet: Analyst

Amazon.com's (NASDAQ:AMZN) forthcoming Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android tablet continues to be a hot topic among tech media and pundits.

One of the popular memes surrounding the machine is that the e-commerce giant could find a way to challenge Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad by severely undercutting it on price.

How severe? Perhaps by as much as half the starting price of the $500 base model iPad 2.

Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin, who has already gone on record saying Amazon could produce at least two tablets this year, did what he described as "back-of-the-envelope" math to conclude that

Bajarin said the tablet could cost $300 to make, but Amazon would discount it by $51 to entice consumers to buy it. The Amazon would expect to make up the difference in movie rentals, music downloads, Kindle book sales, other application purchases and advertising.

Amazon, using its one-click buying method as an easy-on-ramp to customers to make purchases through its Android Appstore and regular e-commerce offerings, could make back the $51 difference within 6 months and make a profit between 10 to 30 percent over the last 18 months of the device's accounting period.

"Now imagine how this could affect the other Android vendors that are making tablets. If Amazon provides a product that is sold under cost with the goal of making up the rest of the cost and profit from apps, services, and even advertising, it could give all of the other Android vendors a serious run for their money," 

"And, given Amazon’s deep ecosystem, other Android vendors would find it very difficult to compete against it. When measuring by units shipped, this method could make Amazon the king of Android tablets very quickly. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it could "own" the Android tablet market."

Notice Bajarin didn't say Amazon would own the tabket market outright. With 30 million units sold in less than 18 months, Apple's iPad owns that distinction at present, Bajarin said. The company would likely protect it lead versus any aggressive challengers by slashing prices and driving the iCloud service to consumers.  model.

Bajarin isn't the only analyst expecting a sharply discounted tablet.

Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, who ignited the Amazon Android tablet meme earlier this year, said she though Amazon would have the best chance of challenging the iPad thanks to its content distribution, channel and brand.

She also believes Amazon would likely subsidize any slate, possibly via advertising. Epps also said such devices would give Amazon the leadership position in Android tablets, still trailing well behind the iPad.

Source: eweek

Will Sony’s Android Tablets Land In Australia Next Month?

Looks like Sony will have plenty to talk about at Berlin’s big IFA electronics show in a couple of weeks. I’ve been invited to spend some quality hands-on time with a range of gear in Sydney, including: new Sony Readers and “digital imaging equipment” — could that mean new video cameras, or those leaked Alpha cameras? But what’s really got me curious is Sony’s self-described “highlight” of a “whole new product category.” Take this with a liberal helping of salt (because Sony certainly wouldn’t confirm it), but I smell tablets.

So I’m just taking a wild guess here. But fingers crossed it could be the 9.4-inch S1 and dual 5.5-inch screen S2. We’ve seen them fondled on video, and Gizmodo US has spent some time with them, too.

Both tablets run Android Honeycomb with a custom Sony UI, and have a Tegra 2 processor, Wi-Fi, 3G support, and included Sony Qriocity and PlayStation suite pre-loaded. Sony has said it wants to be the number 2 tablet maker by 2012 — do you think these bad boys will give them a shot?

Meanwhile, that leaked spring camera line up from Sony possibly includes the big A77, NEX-7, A65 and a whole supporting cast. Again, not even close to being confirmed to arrive here, but we can hope. I’ll let you know on the first of September.

Pierre Cardin steps into the tablet game with PC-7006 tablet

The tablet market is getting more and more interesting by the day. The latest company to throw its hat - or handbag or business suit - into the ring is Pierre Cardin with its PC-7006 designer tablet.

An Android tablet through and through, the PC-7006 is a 520g, 7-inch tablet running Android 2.2. With a 1Ghz processor and 512MB RAM, it certainly not the most power Android device on the market. Nor is it the cheapest. At $449, you might be better served going for more than a few competing devices. But, then again, if you did that you wouldn’t be able to say you were using a Pierre Cardin tablet, would you?

Source : ZDnet

Shopping via Tablet Gains Fans

 The buzz about mobile shopping focuses on the smartphone as the device in hand. But Forrester Research analysts suggested in a report last month that retailers should prepare for "tablet commerce," too.

The report, titled "Why Tablet Commerce May Soon Trump Mobile Commerce," is based on a survey of 28,551 online U.S. shoppers that found respondents prefer tablets to smartphones. "This isn't surprising given that tablets address one of the biggest challenges of mobile devices: the small screen," the report said.

Tablets can provide "richer online experiences than smartphones," including horizontal scrolling, page flipping and video viewing , according to Forrester. The "page flippability," for instance, is especially attractive to catalog retailers.

The Forrester survey also found that tablets are primarily used in the home, especially the living room, and support a leisurely shopping experience.

In addition, innovative retailers are likely to use tablets in stores, as kiosk replacements or as tools for improving customer service on the sales floor, the report said.

But the Forrester analysts acknowledged that "tablet commerce isn't a sure bet," because few retailers are spending money to modify their content for tablets.

Plus, the analysts noted, there are still tablet holdouts: consumers who aren't convinced they need to buy another electronic device.