The Number Of Tablets Predicted This Year May Overwhelm The Marketplace
August 9, 2011
The current, but ever changing prediction for the 2011 tablet shipment forecast is in, and it has been raised by 15.7 million units. This figure accounts for all tablet computers, but the overall popularity of tablets has skyrocketed due to the Apple iPad.
Ben Reitzes, an analyst for Barclays Capital, originally called for a total of 47 million tablets to be shipped in 2011. Now, that figure has changed to 62.7 million. Reitzes predicts that 38.9 million of these will be iPads. The rest of the 23.7 million will be other non-Apple tablets, which is up considerably from an original 2011 predication of 15.6 million.
The recent product availability is one reason the customer demand has gone up, especially for the iPad. Until recently, stores could not keep the iPad in stock and Apple had shipping delays on any online orders for the sought after device. Apple COO Tim Cook said, “We sold every iPad we made.”
The other indicator of this rising prediction is the number of tablets being made by a variety of manufacturers such as: Samsung, RIM, Acer, Asus, and HP. It is even rumored that Amazon will introduce a tablet soon. There are also a variety of smaller companies trying to enter and make a profit in what is proving to be one of the hottest consumer markets.
But will this all be too much? John Paczkowski from All Things D believes it could be. In a recent report he suggests that if you pump too much product into a marketplace where there is not enough demand, you will end up with an oversupply. The demand for non-Apple tablets may not be as high as the predication in the shipping forecast.
So what will happen if there are too many non-Apple tablets on the market? The consumer costs could begin to get more competitive and we have already seen this with HP and Acer. Recently, they have both dropped their tablet prices and it’s expected others may follow suit just to stay competitive.
All of these companies are competing for the second place spot with tablet consumers. This competition may even grow worse when Apple releases their next iPad, which is believed to have a nicer screen and other attractive upgrades (don’t plan on that happening until next year).
It will be interesting to see if any of these non-Apple tablets will have an impact on the iPad market. Will Apple be able to keep their higher price tag in a growing, money conscious society where settling for second best is becoming more acceptable for consumers? What are your thoughts?
