A report by the research firm Gartner said the overall market for connected devices, PCs, smartphones and tablets, is likely to grow 6.9% to nearly US$2.5bn devices in 2014.
More people will dump their PCs for other devices, but the drop in PC sales will moderate to around 6.6% this year, with unit sales of 276m. Some surveys showed a drop of around 10% in PC sales last year.
"Tablet substitution of notebooks will start to dissipate from this year as consumers and businesses align the right device with the right usage pattern," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.
"As they do this, we will see where dedicated devices (such as tablets), or hybrid devices (detachable or convertible devices), fit in the overall portfolio," he added.
"The global tablet market is expected to grow 38.6% , with much of the increase coming outside North America," Gartner said, adding that otal tablet sales will nearly equal that of PCs at 270m.
"The adoption of tablets has been largely concentrated in the US, with the dominance of Apple," Atwal said.
"Market dynamics in other regions are different, as the uptake of lower cost, smaller, non-branded tablets, becomes more apparent," he said.
Gartner said that mobile phones, the largest segment, is predicted to grow at 4.9% to 1.9bn units, led by the lower end of the premium phone market and the higher end of the basic phone market.
The Google Android platform is expected to extend its lead in overall devices, with more than 1.1bn units in 2014, mostly in mobile phones.
Microsoft Windows will remain the number two platform with 339m devices and Apple's iOS and Mac OS will remain third with 286m devices, Gartner said.
Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
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