Probably coming as no big surprise to a lot of tech buffs, NPD claims that tablet shipments will overtake notebook sales by 2016. Though we wouldn’t call it safe to say that tablets are almost there when it has to do with delivering the sort of performance expected from laptops, a rising number of people are adopting this mobile gadget.
According to the research, tablet shipments are anticipated to increase from 121 million to 416 million units in between 2012 and 2017. Notebook sales are calculated to grow from 208 million to 393 million units within the aforesaid time-frame. When it boils down to mounting slate adoption, some of the contributing factors revolve around long battery life, highly portable form factors, multi-core processors and so on.
“Consumer preference for mobile computing devices is shifting from notebook to tablet PCs, particularly in mature markets. While the lines between tablet and notebook PCs are blurring, we expect mature markets to be the primary regions for tablet PC adoption. New entrants are tending to launch their initial products in mature markets. Services and infrastructure needed to create compelling new usage models are often better established in mature markets,” explained Richard Shim, senior analyst at NPD DisplaySearch.
Mature markets covering North America, Japan and Western Europe are projected to account for 66% of 2012 tablet sales. Additionally, these regions may be seen encouraging the slab invasion with shipments rising from 80 million to 254 million units between 2012 and 2017. As for laptops, they are predicted to boast 60% of mobile PC sales this year, with the said share decreasing to 49% by 2017.
This tidbit about tablet shipments crossing notebook sales is sourced from the NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report.