Tablet Shipments Expected to Outpace Notebooks in 2013

From DailyTech: Research firm IDC has published its worldwide quarterly tracker that looks at tablet shipments all around the globe. The report expects shipments for tablets to grow 58.7% year-over-year in 2013. The prediction is for 229.3 million units to ship, representing a sizeable increase from the 144.5 million units shipped in 2012.

IDC is predicting that tablet shipments will exceed shipments of portable computers such as notebooks this year as the PC market continues to decline. Tablet shipments are expected to outpace the entire PC market with portables and desktop computers combined by 2015.

"What started as a sign of tough economic times has quickly shifted to a change in the global computing paradigm with mobile being the primary benefactor," said Ryan Reith, Program Manager for IDC's Mobility Trackers. "Tablets surpassing portables in 2013, and total PCs in 2015, marks a significant change in consumer attitudes about compute devices and the applications and ecosystems that power them. IDC continues to believe that PCs will have an important role in this new era of computing, especially among business users. But for many consumers, a tablet is a simple and elegant solution for core use cases that were previously addressed by the PC."

IDC reports that while Apple was at the front of the tablet revolution, market expansion is being driven by low-cost Android tablets. IDC predicts that during 2013, the average selling price for tablets will decline by 10.8% to $381. To compare, the average selling price of the PC in 2013 is about $635.

IDC predicts that 55% of tablets shipped globally during 2013 will be of screen sizes under 8-inches. The second most popular screen size in the tablet market this year will be the 8-inch through 11-inch units representing 43% of the market.

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