Technology Tuesday: Tablet Sales Are Beating Out Laptop Sales This Year
The PC industry is expected to see negative growth for the second consecutive year as consumers continue to favor tablets over notebooks. Research firm IDC forecasts that worldwide tablet shipments will surpass notebooks in 2013, and will grow to top all PC shipments by 2015. Click here to read more.
Tablet shipments are expected to grow 58.7% year-over-year to 229.3 million units, up from 144.5 million in 2012, and the average price of tablets is estimated to decline -10.8% to $381 due to the rise of low-cost Android models. By comparison, the average price of a PC has nearly doubled in 2013 to $635.
The 8-inch to 11-inch tablet market was once the most dominant, however the popularity of the iPad mini, Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 have resulted in the sub-8-inch market exploding and now accounting for 55% of all shipments. IDC expects smaller and cheaper tablets to remain popular in the years to come, accounting for 57% of shipments in 2017.