Mobile Computing News

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Respected research group, Forrester Research, predicts that within the next three years, annual tablet sales will outstrip that of netbooks and desktops both.

2015 it will be settled

Forrester Research has predicted that come 2015, tablet computer sales will account for 23% of all computer sales in the US. This number will exceed the predicted marketshare for netbooks, which will account for 17%, and it will exceed that of desktops, which will account for 18% of the computer marketplace.

Tablets, predicts Forrester research, will overtake netbooks in 2012 and will overtake desktops in 2013, representing a massive flip in the market in a very short three to four years.

Why?

The big question is why Forrester expect this to happen? The general thinking in technology circles is that the current crop of tablets is more in-line with how we use smartphones than the previous crop, which attempted to replicate desktops. This task-based approach to computing is more inline with mobile computing, coupled with burgeoning app stores makes the second roll of the dice for tablets seem like the successful roll.

Who will be the big winners

Assuming tablet computer sales make up that much of the market in the next five years, who do we expect to dominate the market? More specifically, how much of the market can the Apple tablet computer, the iPad, keep considering it pretty much ushered in the current wave of tablet computers, capture?

The iPad has raced out the gates, selling over 2 million iPads in under 2 months. Apple, at its many big-stage press conferences announced they were selling an iPad ‘every three seonds’. But with the early dominance of the Apple tablet computer a string of very capable competitors have emerged, spearheaded by reputable manufacturers and industry figures alike.

Chrome OS and Android OS tablets are in the works, HP, Asus, Samsung, MSI and a bunch of other companies are dedicating significant resources to this market segment. Can they catch up with Apple and, if yes, how much market share will the Apple tablet computer keep at the fringes?