According to IHS iSuppli's worldwide table market tracker
report, Apple Inc.'s iOS is expected to regain its commanding
leadership of the worldwide tablet space in 2012. The company
suffered a temporary dip in market share in the fourth quarter
of 2011.
The other finding shared by IHS includes:
After dipping to 55.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011,
according to a final estimate, the Apple operating system's
share of worldwide tablet sales is set to recover to 61
percent for the full year of 2012, about the same portion
it had in 2011. The tablet segment includes both media tablets
and PC-type tablets.
A surge in sales of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, which
is based on Google's Android operating system, caused the
dip in Apple's media tablet market share in fourth quarter
of 2011. This had caused Android's share of the tablet operating
system market to climb to 41.1 percent, up from 31.1 percent
during the third quarter of 2011. However, as Apple reasserts
its leadership, Android's share will decline to 38.4 percent
for the full year of 2012.
"The key to Apple's media-tablet success has been
its offering of a complete hardware-plus-content ecosystem,"
said Rhoda Alexander, director for monitors and tablets
research at IHS. "The combination of a good-looking
device, well-designed applications, video, books and music
has provided consumers with an easy-to-use product and an
appealing use case. Such an ecosystem took Apple years to
put together, starting with the iPod plus iTunes Music Store
more than nine years ago, and it's proving to be a challenge
for the company's competitors to replicate it."
Further strengthening Apple's commanding position in the
market, supply-side sources indicate that the company will
deploy a smaller, 7.8-inch display version of the iPad later
this year, although Apple has yet to confirm this. A smaller
screen does not necessarily mean a substantially lower price;
rather, IHS expects Apple will place continuing emphasis
on the quality of the overall tablet experience and the
benefits of selecting the company's products.
Growth Tablets
Sales of tablets this year-including both media tablets
and PC-type tablets-will soar to 126.6 million units, up
a remarkable 85 percent from 68.4 million units in 2011.
The impressive performance of tablets this year builds on
an even mightier 253 percent explosion last year from sales
of 19.4 million units in 2010. Tablets comprise one of the
strongest categories in the consumer electronics market
today, with heady growth in the next few years matching
the wild exuberance of the cellphone or mobile handset industry
in its initial years of market-busting expansion.
Tablet sales will rise another 63 percent next year, on
their way to 360.4 million units by 2016, as shown in the
figure below.
Enter the PC Tablet
While media tablets such as the iPad dominate now and throughout
the forecast, new ultrabook offerings and the release of
Windows 8 later this year will help drive stronger sales
in 2013 and beyond of PC-type tablets, IHS predicts. PC
tablets will appeal to users wanting the flexibility of
a tablet with the versatility of a traditional computer.
These devices are able to manage multiple windows and applications
including traditional full desktop applications, but can
also convert to a slate form with touch capability. The
smaller, lighter form of some of the new ultrabook offerings,
touch improvements in Windows 8, and more aggressive pricing
will help drive growth in this category.
Media tablets are often designated as "consumption-type"
products with which users can browse the web, send email,
view video, play games or interact with applications.
Within the media tablet space, however, the market is fragmenting
into two segments-value products largely serving as "consumption-type"
portable media players; and higher-performance units incorporating
more complex applications and stronger processors. Much
of the growth in the future will come from the value segment,
but the performance sector will provide the stronger challenge
to traditional PCs in both business and consumer markets.
Overall, the growth last year of media tablets dwarfed
that of tablet PCs, and media tablet sales will continue
to outperform those of tablet PCs in 2012. By next year,
tablet PC growth will accelerate to nearly 160 percent,
compared to a still-robust 60 percent increase for media
tablets.
The PC tablet growth is a form transition within the larger
notebook market and does not reflect any cannibalization
of the media tablet opportunity. This is because PC tablets
will still lag well behind their media tablet counterparts
next year, numbering a little over 8 million units compared
to more than 197 million units for media tablets.
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N
