Tablet screen sizes expanding as iPad Pro approaches

28th August 2015

Siobhan O'Gorman

0 0

Large screen sizes are gaining favour as the tablet transforms into a productivity device, with shipments growing 185% year-on-year in 2015. According to a recent Strategy Analytics’ Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies (TTS) report, Apple’s iPad Pro will join a market that is primed for growth, thanks to the success of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 and larger 2-in-1 detachable tablets from traditional PC vendors like Lenovo, Acer and Asus.

By 2019, shipments of tablets with screen sizes 11” or greater will nearly double to 19.3m units, grabbing a 7% share of the market, a combination of enterprise adoption of large screen-sized tablets and consumer adoption of 2-in-1 tablets will contribute to this strong growth

Once the market leading screen size segment, shipments of 7-7.9” tablets will shrink 15 percentage points to occupy 30% of the market in 2019 as phablet cannibalisation takes its toll, and the 8-8.9” segment grows to 31% of shipments

While 2-in-1 tablets and premium large-screen slate tablets will drive growth for users seeking content creation devices, mobile content consumption and TV second-screening will remain an essential part of the market with a global installed base of 995m tablets in 2019, up 32% from 2015.

Peter King, Service Director, TTS, said: “A dramatic shift is underway among tablet screen sizes to accommodate more use cases for the tablet. The success of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, and now the lower-cost Surface 3, has opened the market for traditional PC vendors to sell larger screen-sized Windows tablets to compete for PC replacement dollars. Additionally, 2-in-1 tablets have gained market share as costs have come down, placing 10 and 11” Windows tablets in the mid and low price tiers for mass market consumption.”