According to a news report this week tablets are more popular than ever before and according to another one they will be gone from the world in 5 years time. So which one should be believed?
The Good News
Analysts IDC have reported that in the first quarter of this year the sale of tablets has boomed. The figures show a growth of more than 142% over the same 3 months last year. In fact, more tablets were sold in the first quarter of 2013 than in the entire first half of 2012.
Of all the tablets sold so far this year almost 40% of them were from Apple. The total number of sales in this period was 49.2 million, and 19.5 million of them were from Apple. Despite having sold more tablets like the iPad Mini than ever before Apple has seen its market dominance slip from 58% recently.
The Bad News
Heins says tablets will be obsolete in 5 years.
Meanwhile, Thorsten Heins thinks that we won’t be using tablets after 2018. He is the head of Blackberry and during an interview with Bloomberg has said that by this time he doesn’t believe that there will “a reason” to own one of these devices. He went on to say that maybe we will want a big screen for work but that tablets are “not a good business model.” Of course, Blackberry’s Playbook tablet didn’t exactly set the heather on fire when it was finally released in 2011.
A final piece of bad news for electronics firms but good news for consumers is that many tablets have been reported to be selling almost at cost price this year.
What do you think, will tablets be obsolete in 5 years?
