The tablet market, which blazed a sales trail since its debut in 2010, seems to be 100-million units smaller than expected.
This is according to Christopher Riley, CEO of The Notebook Company, who says: “The heyday of the tablet seems to have passed. While tablet sales accounted for the bulk of The Notebook Company’s revenue from 2011-2013, this has tapered off gradually over the last two years.
“We are now seeing tablet sales account for around 50% of our sales. It is unlikely we will return to the utter buoyancy of 2010-2013,” says Riley.
The bulk of The Notebook Company’s tablet sales are for Apple iPads, he adds. As of April this year Apple sold more than 300-million iPads.
“While 300-million is an impressive number by any accounts, many pundits believe this number actually falls short of what the earlier expectations were.”
Early predictions were assuming “something of a revolution in mobile computing”.
Research firm Gartner had earlier predicted that annual shipments would pass 300-million by 2015, including almost 150-million iPads.
But reality has proven different, says Riley. IDC estimates that 2015 overall tablet shipments stood at 207-million for 2015, with Apple selling 50-million iPads.
