Affecting by weaker-than-expected global economic growth in the second half of 2012, Digitimes Research estimates that global branded tablet PC shipments will only reach 49.18 million units during the period, reducing Digitimes Research's previous annual shipment forecast to 88.69 million units, with shipment ratio for the first and second halves of 2012 to reach 45:55, according to Digitimes Research senior analyst James Wong.
In 2012, tablet PC competition is gradually turning from between smartphone players, PC players and Apple to between four major tablet PC players – Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon.
For Apple, the company is set to launch a 7.85-inch iPad as well as an IGZO panel-based 9.7-inch model, while Amazon plans to release new, cheaper 7-inch Kindle tablet PCs with a resolution of 1024 by 600 and a US$199 7-inch model that features a resolution of 1280 by 800. As for whether Amazon plans to release a larger size tablet PC, confirmation will come in September.
Digitimes Research estimates that the four major players will together ship 38.5 million tablet PCs in the second half, accounting for 77% of global shipments, while the remaining tablet PC players will only ship 10.68 million units combined with a share of 23%.
Source: DigiTimes
