Tablet Market Skyrockets With 64millions Units Shipped

Online, January 25, 2013 (Newswire.com) - "The Q4 period accounted for nearly half of all tablet sales last year, culminating in total sales of 136 million units for last year," says Arun Gill, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. "This clearly demonstrates the impact that tablet devices are having on consumers' spending habits and lifestyle choices, as the category continues to push through the roof."

Competitively, Apple remained the market leader and experienced high demand for the new 7 inch iPad, although limited supply capacity did result in some missed opportunities.

Samsung saw success with a range of new tablets last year, particularly the competitively-priced Galaxy Tab 2. The release of the Nexus 10 in collaboration with Google may help to challenge Apple's dominance in sales of larger-screened tablets.

Amazon capitalised on increasing demand for smaller tablets and retained a comfortable market share with the release of its Kindle Fire HD.

Asus' and Google's Nexus 7 also gained from increasing demand for smaller tablets. The high sales volumes reflected the assault that cheaper Android tablets are making on Apple's market share.

Microsoft saw challenging sales following the release of its flagship Surface tablet running Windows 8 RT, though the upcoming release of the Surface Pro is expected to help turn this around.

The heightened demand for smaller and cheaper-priced tablets continues to impact the average retail price. Despite this price erosion, the overall value of the tablet market will continue to climb and prospects for the industry are extremely positive, with strong growth throughout the forecast period for the next three years.