In 2013, the global market for tablets, mobile phones and personal computers will reach 2.4 billion units sold, up 9 percentage points from last year and in 2017 is expected to exceed 2.9 billion units, according to estimates published by the Gartner analysis company.
The share of devices will change considerably during this period, so that if in 2012 the market for desktop and laptop computers was over 341 million units sold, it will gradually decrease by 2017, to around 272 million units. In 2013, this segment will decrease by 7.6% compared to last year. But in terms of tablet segment, their sales will reach a four-fold increase since 2012, from 116 million to 468 million units sold in 2017. This increase will take place in the context of an expansion of low-cost tablet segment, which accelerates transfer from PCs to tablet users.
“While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
An exponential growth will also be recorded by Ultra-mobiles, ie phones that will have the functions of a computer, or tablet PC with similar functions. They will grow about ten times, from 9.822 million units in 2012 to 96.350 million units in 2017, according to Gartner.
In 2013, the global tablet sales will grow by 69.8% compared to 2012, from 116 million units to 197 million.
“Lower prices, form factor variety, cloud update and consumers’ addiction to apps will be the key drivers in the tablet market,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. He added: “Growth in the tablet segment will not be limited to mature markets alone. Users in emerging markets who are looking for a companion to their mobile phone will increasingly choose a tablet as their first computing device and not a PC.”
In terms of market share of operating systems on mobile devices, Android has the upper hand due to increased sales of smartphones using this OS. Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows are the Operating Systems competing for second place on the global market.
According to Gartner, Android OS will eventually be used by 1.468 million devices by 2017, from 497,087 last year, while Windows will be used on 570,937 devices, up from 346,457 in 2012. Apple’s iOS will double of the number of devices that will use the OS from 212,899 in 2012 to 504,147 in 2017.
Tablets are not the only mobile devices with a significant price drop. The smartphones will also become more accessible, leading to an increase in their markets. Of the 1.875 billion phones that will be sold in 2013, 1 billion will be smartphones, up from 675 million units in 2012, according to data released by Gartner.
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