Tablets trend hot beyond the consumer mkt

SINGAPORE: The global installed base of tablets will reach 905 million users by 2017, up from just 15 million users in 2010, according to a Forrester forecast published this week.

This growth will catapult the tablet from merely a popular mass-market device to a highly visible mainstay device among consumers and businesses in developed nations, notes Analyst J.P. Gownder in the new report: "Global Business And Consumer Tablet Forecast Update, 2013 To 2017."

In some other key findings from the forecast show that worldwide sales of tablets will rise from 122 million in 2012 to 381 million in 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 25.6 per cent. Replacement sales - tablet owners purchasing newer models - make up an increasing proportion of the market, even as overall market penetration continues to grow among tablet non-owners. A majority of the 381 million tablets will be purchased by consumers, but enterprise purchases will make up 18 per cent -- having risen every year as a percentage of sales since the inception of the market.

In North America, 60 per cent of online consumers will own a tablet by 2017, making it a majority device. In Europe, 42 per cent of online consumers will own one. While penetration rates won't reach even 25 per cent in aggregate in the developing world by that date, tablets will reach majority status in leading Asian markets, including Singapore and South Korea.

In comparison to smartphones - reaching 2.34 billion installed devices by 2017 - tablets will be used by over one in eight people on Earth, including 29 per cent of online consumers.

In a blog post, J.P. Gownder explained that tablets will play an increasingly critical role at work. "Both company-issued and bring-your-own (BYO) tablets will become pervasive in workplaces in developing countries or dynamic regions of developing countries (for example, urban China). In the next few years, employees will be more willing to pay some or all of the cost of their device; vertical scenarios will emerge in areas like healthcare; and specific classes of workers (beyond executives and traveling salespeople) will be issued tablets."

The report also takes a close look at the enterprise tablet market by operating system, and the battle between the largest platform providers (Apple/iOS, Android/Google, Amazon/Kindle, Microsoft/Windows 7, etc) .