iPad Tablet Market Share to Fall to 50 Percent by 2017 According to Research

[Maura]

AppleInsider reports that according to figures from market research firm NPD, the iPad’s dominant share of the tablet market will fall to 50% by 2017, with Android and Windows-based tablets starting to chip away at Apple’s market share by as soon as 2014. The data was published as part of NPD subsidiary DisplaySearch’s Tablet Quarterly, which also estimates that the tablet market as a whole will increase from 81.6 million units in 2011 to 424.9 million by 2017. The report says that worldwide tablet shipments will surpass worldwide notebook shipments by 2016, with demand being driven by more and more features, operating system diversity and manufacturing capacity for tablets.

“So far in this relatively young product category, the tablet PC market has been dominated by Apple and has tended to include a number of competing products that are similarly configured to the iPad,†said NPD DisplaySearch senior analyst Richard Shim. “However, as the market matures and competitors become better attuned to consumer preferences and find opportunities to break new ground, we expect the landscape to change dramatically, giving consumers more choices, which will drive demand for more devices.â€

Source: iPad tablet market share will dip to 50% by 2017, study says

 

[thewitt]

That's a stretch. No one can predict the tech world 5 years out....

 

[mannyberrios]

I don't think so!

 

[britpoper]

That's a stretch. No one can predict the tech world 5 years out....

Agree.

 

[wjb63]

OK, I've been in IT longer than some of you have been around so I have to say it's highly amusing to read the "expert opinion" on this. Who paid for this joker to come up with stuff? I'd like to meet the fool who was so easily parted from his/her money!

Shall we got through the "data"?

What defines a tablet device? Is Mr Richard Shim including phones as well as normal tablets? It seems hard to believe Apple only had 60% of the sales in 2011. Perhaps the analyst was using shipped rather than sold numbers. You only have to look at the next article on your forum to see iOS devices are used for almost all web traffic on handhelds. A pretty picture is just way to simple to cover the facts.

Moving on, Win 8 is yet to arrive but given Microsoft are constantly trying to claw into this market, surely they won't keep the product release at version 8 or RT for long. Certainly not until 2017! Perhaps the expert meant to label MS share as 8+ and RT+ like they did for Android 3.

Remember when Apple released the iPad? Almost all tech sites slammed it as being "not for them" and "would not sell many". A few months later, they eventually buy one because they've all seen their less tech-savvy relatives using them and enjoying it. The sales figures were revised upwards numerous times as the market finally got their hands on them. Then version 2 comes along and is slammed for being a minor upgrade. But Apple sell even more. Now the "new iPad" is here and the price drops on version 2 and still the experts think it's not enough! Yet we read the Kindle Fire, touted as almost a poor man's iPad, is rapidly falling in sales. You only have to look at what's available to see where the competition's problem lies: the prices are too high. The ecosystem is not as smooth. The Android experience is too fragmented. Apple have played a smart game controlling everything. I have an Android Note. It's nice but it's not like iOS. And we will wait and wait for how long for ICS to arrive? What's the issue? Why does it depend upon each hardware and network to roll this out? This is just nonsense to the non-techos out there. Tech for tech's sake has a history of failure. Give people form and function at the right price and you're onto a winner.

I would like to see the analyst's paycheck tied to getting it right. Keep that cheque in the bank until 2017 and let's see how close he got the truth. Me thinks his crystal ball will prove to have been somewhat cloudy the day he worked up these figures! Has anyone got access to the full report so we can look at the assumptions and raw data?

 

[KevinJS]

Looks like a bit of wishful thinking on Microsoft's part to me. I think the guy must have used my Vista PC to crunch his numbers; inevitable fail.

Sent from my iPad 4 HD mini