Worldwide media tablet sales to end users are forecast to reach 19.5 million units this year, driven by sales of the iPad, according to a study by Gartner. Media tablets are poised for strong growth with worldwide end user sales projected to total 54.8 million units in 2011, up 181 percent from this year, and surpass 208 million units in 2014. Media tablets sales will reach 103 million units in 2012 and 154 million units in 2013. Gartner analysts said the impact of media tablets on other devices will vary among segments. Gartner research vice president Carolina Milanesi said that the all-in-one nature of media tablets will result in the cannibalisation of other consumer electronics devices such as e-readers, gaming devices and media players. Mini notebooks will suffer from the strongest cannibalisation threat as media tablet average selling prices drop below USD 300 over the next two years. Low-end consumer notebooks will only marginally suffer from cannibalisation. Gartner analysts expect very limited cannibalisation on communication devices based on open OS (smartphones). The majority of the impact will be from 7-inch media tablets on high-end smartphones as it will be hard for a user to justify owning both when the differentiation in usage model is very limited. Users buying a 7-inch tablet might opt for a lower priced smartphone with a smaller form factor.
North America will account for 61 percent of media tablet sales this year. As these devices become available in more markets, North America's share of media tablet sales will drop to 43 percent in 2014. This year, mobile/Wi-Fi media tablets will account for 55 percent of sales, and by 2014, mobile/Wi-Fi media tablets will account for 80 percent of sales. Ten-inch media tablets will play a role as companion devices in the enterprise market. In the enterprise space, for the immediate future, the main use of media tablets is as a notebook companion or as a secondary device to take on the road or use for fast access to e-mail, calendaring, interrogating web applications and information sources, and showing PowerPoint presentations. As media tablets move from early adopters to mainstream, media tablets will become a family purchase as well as a personal one. Milanesi said that communication service providers who have so far subsidised mini-notebooks to drive mobile broadband uptake will shift their marketing spend to media tablets. Such subsidies will help drive adoption among those consumers who see the initial hardware cost as a hurdle.
