Global tablet shipments to double in Q2: report
Summary: DigiTimes estimates global tablet shipments will come close to doubling on the previous year, but expects a slow-down in the second quarter.
Global tablet shipments will grow by 47.5 percent in Q2 on the previous year to 21.58 million units, DigiTimes reports.
Gartner said last month that global tablet sales (not shipments) will double to 119 million units this year, up from 60 million in 2011. Apple is expected to dominate the tablet space with over 60 percent market share.
Other interesting morsels from the DigiTimes report suggest Apple's processor could account for up to 70 percent of all tablet shipments, indicating a strong demand for the iPad, which launched in March.
Between DigiTimes and Gartner, the figures differ, but not by a vast amount.
Apple will without doubt retain the crown as the world's most popular tablet market, eclipsing Android tablets. Samsung remains in second place with its Galaxy line-up of tablets. Asustek could rise to the third-place spot in the top tablet, but Lenovo is likely to drop out of the top five altogether.
An earlier DigiTimes report (mirror) suggested Amazon could dish out two tablets in 2012 --- and the possibility of that figure rising to four tablets --- citing industry sources. A 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet could be priced at the $249--299 mark, while a previously expected 8.9-inch model could be held back due to "vendor's concerns on pricing."
Amazon still holds the e-reader market well. Apple could lose its rights to the iBookstore, pending the outcome of the EU and U.S. antitrust investigation into alleged e-book price fixing. Amazon would benefit massively from losing its main rival in the e-book space, but does not guarantee an automatic boost in tablet sales.
Nvidia would ultimately have to rely on Amazon dishing out a tablet, the report notes, as it will likely lose Samsung as its customer in the second-half of this year.
Related:
- Asus: Can 'Happiness 2.0' strategy drive growth?
- Apple preparing for cheaper iPad 2 enterprise push?
- Nokia "working on" tablet; expect Windows 8 support
- Non-Apple tablet shipments expected to surge in 2012
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Talkback
How Samsung is second if in Q4 Amazon sold more than twice as many Fires ..
Of course, Amazon's Fire sales in Q1 fell much more dramatically than Samsung's -- due to specifics of Amazon's marketing, which is targeted more at Christmas purchases/holidays/gifts. Yet Fire estimated to have more sales than SGTs anyway.
Overall through the year Amazon actually will be at second place.
If Samsung will not unfold some superstrong upgrade, they will not be able to compete with supercheap subsidised Fire the way that would make them bigger seller of tablets than Amazon.
But lets see, because Samsung is excellent hardware maker. Their updates for Galaxy Tab series are weak, but they may prepare much stronger versions of hardware later this year.