New forecasts from ABI Research suggest just over 11 million tablets and 43 million netbooks will ship worldwide this year. The netbook figure is somewhat lower than observers expected at the end of last year, but the growth is still impressive, though not as meteoric as during the past couple of years.
One of the causes for the drop in demand for netbooks is found in the emergence of tablet computers, which on their end are far from hitting the 40-50 million annual shipments that ABI Research considers the threshold for a “mass market” product.
At the moment, Apple is pretty much commanding the tablet market with its iPad, but will soon be challenged with an array of Android-powered devices, most notably Samsung’s Galaxy Tab which will be offered through every major mobile operator in the U.S.
The research company’s Jeff Orr commented: “Apple has sold a few million iPads in its first quarter, which is great for creating a new market. But early adoption of media tablets is not outpacing netbooks. The iPad average selling price above $650 isn’t driving mass adoption. Competition, especially on price, is needed.”
And you can get additional information from ABI Research’ website.