During the first quarter of this year, more than 39 million tablets shipped all around the world, representing the second largest volume of shipments to date after Q4 2012.
According to ABI Research, the spending power of the largest three world regions (North America, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific’s Japan and South Korea) and availability of new, higher cost Windows devices are continuing to drive market awareness and growth.
The three mentioned regions are expected to yield 97% of tablet revenues in 2013, with North America alone expected to claim nearly half of the estimated $72 billion spent this year on tablets.
Windows-based tablets will drive the growth in revenues as the average selling price of Windows 8 and Windows RT product is higher than other platforms. Among vendors that have joined Microsoft in launching Windows tablets are such major companies as Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Vizio — all of which hope that Windows-friendly business community will start buying these devices.
Meanwhile, iPad keeps dominating the market, while Android keeps growing like crazy though not making as much money as it used to for companies making these devices…