Worldwide tablet market to grow 38 percent, PCs continue decline - Gartner
Office for the iPad
A new report from Gartner reaffirms the massive reach and saturation level enjoyed by consumer electronic devices. Gartner's latest numbers project worldwide combined shipments of devices (meaning PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) to reach 2.5 billion units this year, a nearly 7 percent increase over 2013.
Tablets clock in with the biggest year-over-year increase. The worldwide tablet market is forecast to grow 38.6 percent as overall adoption continues to grow faster in markets outside North America. In contrast, shipments of traditional PCs are expected to see a 6.6 percent decline from 2013.
Mobile phones, the largest segmet of the overall device market, are expected to reach 1.9 billion units in 2014, a 4.9 percent increase from 2013. This year's growth is projected to come from the lower end of the premium phone market and the higher end of the basic phone market.
On the OS side of the equation, Gartner reports that Apple's iOS tablet growth has slowed as its replacement cycle stalled. And while Google is still tasked with expanding Android's footprint, the Internet giant is on target to sell more than one billion devices during 2014.
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