The tablet market will return to growth this year, with an expected increase of 1 percent to 160.8 million units, Strategy Analysts predicts. The fastest growth in six years is driven by more work, learning and entertainment occurring at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The market researcher also found that consumers are switching to larger displays for their tablets. It expects a majority of tablets (56%) shipped this year will be larger than 10 inches for the first time. This share is expected to increase to 64 percent in 2025.
The increasing use of tablets for productivity and education has also led to higher sales of detachable 2-in-1 devices, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7 and almost all of Apple’s current iPad models, which allow for a keyboard to be attached. This trend towards devices which compete more seriously as notebook PC alternatives is expected to continue in the coming years, reaching an estimated 45 percent of the market in 2024 compared to 51 percent of units slate tablets.
