RaduTyrsina
News Team
Steve Job’s “post-PC†era is slowly proving not to be the stuff of dreams. And it’s official, this year will prove to be an excellent year for tablets, as 2013 will go into tech history as the year when tablets finally managed to outsell notebooks PCs. The NPD Display Search firm came up with the forecast, which it already published in its Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report. There the company stated that, 2013 will see 240 million tablet PCs shipped worldwide, as compared to just 207 million notebooks. The 33 million difference is quite a remarkable one.
The US market especially saw the biggest growth iin the second half of 2012. Senior analyst with NPD DisplaySearch, Richard Shim, stated:
"In 2013, further investments are expected worldwide, stoking demand to the point that tablet PC shipments will exceed those of notebook PCs."
The report also made another interesting speculation. The firm stated that in 2013, smaller tablets (maybe like the iPad mini) will probably challenge Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad dominance on the market.
NPD expects 7 to 8-inch screen tablet business to rise up by 45% (or 108 million units) in 2013. 9.7 inches tablets will start experiencing a decrease, accounting for only 17% (or 41 million units) of the total shipments. Tablet sales have already surpassed notebook ones in China and North America, so it’s just a matter of time before the trend spreads worldwide. NPD also predicts that China will hold 27% of the global tablet market. Nevertheless, America is going to remain the largest consumer market with 35%.
Source: AppleInsider