Forrester: The number of active tablets will continue to grow rapidly

Specialists of the analytical company Forrester presented a new forecast for the development of the global tablet market for the period 2013-2017. The rapid growth in the number of active devices will continue: from 327 million tablets in 2013 to more than 905 million in 2017.

Forrester talks about “hyper-growth” in this sector of the computer market, “the most successful” both in terms of the degree of penetration and the variety of competing offers. The company’s analysts expect an average annual growth rate of tablet sales of 25.6% between 2012 and 2017. In 2017, annual sales should reach 381 million devices. When the first-generation iPad appeared in 2010, the number of active tablets worldwide was just over 15 million.

And in the second quarter of 2013, iPad sales have already exceeded 140 million. With Apple’s undisputed leadership in the tablet market, sales of Windows and Android devices from Microsoft will also continue to grow. However, Microsoft needs “significant improvements in the ecosystem” for this.

The layout of where tablets find their use looks like this: 76% of respondents use devices at home, 58% – at the desk, and 49% – at work, but “in another room“. The latest figures indicate an increased interest in tablets as business tools. Of course, PCs still dominate the desktop, but tablets are ahead of smartphones in their mobility.

In the future, according to Forrester, it is thanks to tablets that new types of collaborative data processing (collaborative computing) will arise. For example, networking of several tablets that support multi-user interaction. Other promising areas are health monitoring and home automation systems.

The full report is on the Forrester website.

A source: techcrunch.com