Portable Electronics Ltd // Technology you can carry.

New In-Stat (www.in-stat.com) research indicates that this tablet frenzy isn’t quite as global as one would think, as only three regions, North America, Asia/Pacific, and Western Europe will be responsible for 91% of all tablet unit shipments in 2015.

Reported by In-stat

Google’s Android OS is forecast to increase its worldwide share of the media tablet market from 20 percent in 2011 to 39 percent in 2015 (see Table 1). Analysts said Google’s decision not to open up the Honeycomb, its first OS version dedicated to tablets, to third parties will prevent fragmentation, but it will also slow the price decline and ultimately cap market share.

Table 1
Worldwide Sales of Media Tablets to End Users by OS (Thousands of Units)

10.1 million media tablets were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010 (4Q10) - more than double the 4.5 million shipped in the third quarter. Apple's share came down from 93% in 3Q10 to 73% in 4Q10, but still reflected Apple's strong leadership position. Samsung's Galaxy Tab was the primary competitor in the holiday season, beating other players to market and capturing more than 17% share, while a number of smaller regional players also participated.

Ovum Australia principal analyst, Adam Leach, said in a statement that the firm is forecasting a 36 per cent global market share for Google and 35 per cent share for Apple in four years time, out of a total tablet market of approximately 150 million units shipped.

“This compares with Ovum’s estimate of 10 per cent for Google and 90 per cent for Apple at the end of 2010,” he said.

Only 0.3% of the Earth's inhabitants owned a tablet at the end of 2010, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky notes today in a detailed, 88-page report about the future of the tablet market. That means 99.7% of the people on Earth still haven't bought a tablet yet!

In this chart, Abramsky plots the tiny smartphone and tablet user base (394 million worldwide) versus other market, such as TV subscriptions (600 million), total PCs (1.3 billion), and mobile subscribers (5.1 billion).

Apple understands desire.

Beyond the device itself, Apple's product strategy cultivates an emotional connection with consumers through: Content; Channel; Service

Apple still defines the tablet market, with a product consumers will desire at a price that’s hard to beat.

Reported by Forrester

Along with the iPad introduction, market drivers for tablet shipments include an increase in the availability of new media, like magazines, newspaper and books, as well as in the number of applications available for mobile computing, such as web browsing, email, social networks, and video consumption.

US consumer tablet forecast for 2010 upward to 10.3 million units, and we expect sales to more than double in 2011 to 24.1 million units. Of those sales, the lion's share will be iPads, and despite many would-be competitors that will be released at CES, we see Apple commanding the vast majority of the tablet market through 2012.

By 2015, 82 million US consumers -- one-third of US online consumers -- will be using a tablet, and not all of them will be iPads.