This will be a killer year for tablet makers with an estimated 145 million of tablets shipping worldwide by the end of 2013. A combination of new market entrants, more affordable choices for consumers, and increased adoption by business audiences will support the growth.
According to ABI Research‘s Jeff Orr, the rate of innovation is slowing as tablet vendors augment their product portfolios to meet the needs of market audiences. On the other hand, “the late 2012 launches of Apple’s iPad mini and a variety of slates based on Intel architecture and new Windows operating systems will only begin to show their progress this year.”
Most of the attention for tablets is coming from North America where the outlook for 2013 has the region consuming just over 50% of worldwide shipments.
And it’s not just consumers who will be buying these devices; businesses too will get them in volumes, accounting for 19% of all shipments in 2013. While some cannibalization of the PC installed base is likely, the majority of new tablet opportunity comes from workers that have, until now, worked without the benefits of computing technologies…