Apple's Share Of Tablet Market Will Drop To 50 Percent In 2013
March 17, 2011
Apple will likely remain the top overall tablet seller at least through 2013, according to a new survey by DisplaySearch. The Santa Clara, California-based survey company predicts Apple will sell 40 million iPads this year alone, 20 million more than the rest of the market as a whole.
DisplaySearch, in looking at the near-term trends in the emerging tablet market, believes 60 million total units will be sold in 2011, with nearly 100 million more flying off shelves in 2012. It won’t be until 2013 when every other manufacturer put together will finally sell as many tablets as Apple.
Even in 2013, however, Apple’s share of the market will still hover around 50 percent, with no other single manufacturer even close.
It won’t be until 2014 or beyond that Apple’s share will become lower than those of other competitors. Even then, it is unlikely that any one tablet will overtake sales of the iPad.
According to Jennifer Colegrove, PhD, Vice President of Emerging Display Technologies for DisplaySearch:
“Tablet PCs are the fastest growing application for touch screens. Most tablet PC products will leverage multi-touch projected capacitive technology, following Apple’s lead. At the same time, a small amount of tablet PCs are using resistive touch, since it is less expense and enables handwriting recognition. There are also some tablet PCs that use digitizers for handwriting recognition and drawing.”By 2016, DisplaySearch estimates total tablet sales will reach 260 million units, with Apple accounting for just over 100 million of those sales. The findings, which are a summarized version of the subscription-only Touch Panel Market Analysis, are available here.
