Demand for tablet devices is expected is to increase rapidly over the next few years, resulting in global revenues reaching as high as $49 billion by 2015, according to a recent report from research firm Strategy Analytics.
By that time, the tablet market is expected to become the third hottest consumer electronics segment behind only televisions and personal computers. The research firm predicts that 80 percent of the tablet market will be dominated by high-tier and low-tier models, with major brands like Apple and Samsung gaining the lion's share. The anticipated influx of lower priced devices will bring down the average price of the tablet over the next few years.
As expected, the best markets for tablet vendors will be in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific, where many of the low-tier models will be sold. In fact, the average selling price in Asia Pacific will be 85 percent less than that in Western Europe. That said, total revenues in Asia Pacific will beat out those in Western Europe due to the sheer number of tablets that are expected to be sold there.
Overall, the research firm speculates that as many as 149 million tablet devices will be sold in 2015 alone.
"The strategic trend here is for personal and mobile computing to shift away from keyboards to touchscreens," Neil Mawston, a Strategy Analytics analyst, told Bloomberg Business Week. "Competition is rising, supply is rising, so prices should fall over time."
Even with lofty estimates, Strategy Analytics forecast still fails to reach that of Gartner, which speculated that as many as 294 million units will be shipped in 2015, Reuters reports.
Most analysts expect that Apple will continue to dominate the tablet market for at least the next few years. It is estimated that the tech giant sold around 1 million iPad 2 devices in the first weekend of its March launch. Overall, iPads have generated approximately $9.6 billion in sales since its debut last April, according to Bloomberg.
Beecher Tuttle is a TechZone360 contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
