When the iPad became a big deal, terms like “post PC” were thrown around a lot and everybody wanted a tablet. The problem is that everybody GOT a tablet and the market got oversaturated. Sometime at the end of 2013 and early 2014, the whole segmented starting slowing down massively and now the trend has progressively evolved.
Studies show that we’re in the third consecutive year of tablet sales drops, leaving room for laptops and PCs to bounce back. Deloitte forecasts that sales of tablets will drop to under 165 million units this year, which is 10% less than last year and a third below 2014. At the same time IDC thinks that the PC market will stabilize this year, reaching 251.4 million, which is a drop of a mere 1.7% from 2016.
Back to Deloitte, their study says that 63% of households in the UK already have a tablet and 15% of consumers want to buy a new one this year. In the meantime 95% of households have a computer and 25% of people intend to buy a new one over the next 12 months. Younger consumers are opting for laptops now, as the iPad is no longer as cool as in its early days.
As smartphones are larger and more powerful, the need for a tablet disappears. Meanwhile, truly “heavy” work is still done on the PC. Will be live to see another major rise of the PC market? After all trends are cyclical… so that may well happen.
