Worldwide tablet sales grow 68% in 2013 with Android capturing 62% of market, says Gartner

Worldwide sales of tablets to end users reached 195.4 million units in 2013, a 68% increase on 2012, according to Gartner.

While sales of iOS tablets grew in the fourth quarter of 2013, iOS's share declined to 36% in 2013, said Gartner. Tablet growth in 2013 was fueled by the low-end smaller screen tablet market, and first time buyers; this led Android to become the No. 1 tablet operating system (OS) with 62% of the market, Gartner indicated.

"In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android-based tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still offering adequate specifications," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. "As the Android tablet market becomes highly commoditized, in 2014, it will be critical for vendors to focus on device experience and meaningful technology and ecosystem value – beyond just hardware and cost – to ensure brand loyalty and improved margins."

In 2013, the share of Apple's iOS dropped 16.8pp as the market demand was driven by the improved quality of smaller low-cost tablets from branded vendors, and white-box products continued to grow in emerging markets, Gartner noted. Emerging markets enjoyed growth of 145% in 2013, while mature markets grew 31%.

"Apple's tablets remain strong in the higher end of the market and, Apple's approach will continue to force vendors to compete with full ecosystem offerings, even in the smaller-screen market as the iPad mini sees a greater share," Cozza continued.

In 2013, Microsoft's tablet volumes improved but share remained small. Despite Microsoft now acting more rapidly to evolve Windows 8.1, its ecosystem still failed to capture major consumers' interest on tablets, Gartner said.

"To compete, Microsoft needs to create compelling ecosystem proposition for consumers and developers across all mobile devices, as tablets and smartphones become key devices for delivering applications and services to users beyond the PC," Cozza indicated.

Microsoft enjoys better shares in ultramobiles that are more productivity oriented, where its partners are ramping up new form factors and designs, Gartner added.

The tablet market has become a challenging environment for branded hardware-driven players. They are squeezed by service-driven and content-driven players, and aggressive prices from white-box vendors. In addition, a situation where the top two tablet vendors have captured 55% of the market in 2013 compounds the challenge.

From a vendor perspective, Apple's strong fourth quarter helped it to maintain the top position in the market in 2013, according to Gartner. Samsung, ranked No. 2, exhibited the highest growth of the worldwide tablet vendors, at 336%, in 2013.

The expansion and improvement of Samsung's Galaxy tablet portfolio, together with strong marketing and promotions, helped Samsung shrink the gap with Apple, Gartner indicated. In line with its smartphone approach, Samsung's over-segmentation of its tablet portfolio helped it to offer a wider size and price choice but also helped it to test the market and find niches.

Amongst the vendors that have a less than 6% share of the worldwide tablet market, Lenovo did particularly well in 2013 with tablet sales growing 198%, Gartner said.

"Lenovo's success is a combination of launching innovative new tablet models during the second half of 2013 and the sales of its Yoga model and Windows tablets doing particularly well," said Isabelle Durand, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Moreover, Lenovo's strong R&D capabilities and its ability to react quickly to tablet market dynamics have helped it introduce innovative and a range of attractive products to the market. However, establishing a strong brand with consumers outside China, which is especially important in the tablet market, remains a key challenge."

Source:    Digitimes

04 марта 2014