It was just a few years ago that the iPad made tablets an ‘in thing’ in the UK, but now they’re everywhere. In fact, it’s been suggested that as much as a third of the UK’s population now uses tablets. Yikes.
That equals out to a sizeable 20 million tablets currently in use across the country. eMarketer has estimated that this figure will grow to over half of the population by 2017, hitting around 34.8 million tablets in use. Be prepared to see a lot more slates on the journey to work.
In recent years products like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire have introduced have made the market more affordable with their smaller form factors, which is a big reason behind the rapid growth. Now even companies like TESCO are taking a shot at the market with their own additions.
As for the ever-popular iPad series, eMarketer stated: “Though 59 per cent of tablet users will use an iPad this year ‘ whether alone or in combination with other tablets ‘ the growth rate for iPad users is expected to be a little over half that of tablets overall.
“Next year, eMarketer forecasts, the growth rate for iPad users will drop to single digits and stay there through 2017.”
The company expects to see huge growth in certain age groups, including under 12 and over 65 and the more specific groups of 12 to 17 and 55 to 64.
Despite the huge number, we can hardly say we’re surprised. The iPad has made a huge impact and the line of smaller tablets that has since launched has brought even more consumers in. The question really is where do we go from here in terms of technology, if not sales.
Source: The Telegraph