The battle of the gadgets
Tacis P. Gavoyannis, SVP business development at Radius Global Market Research: Predictions for the year ahead (in numbers)…
It is shaping to be a very interesting year for consumers, especially when it comes to digital gadgets – a market that is currently dominated by the tablet.
The World in numbers: 2010
- 6.2 billion people on the planet
- 1.3 billion internet connections
- 1.5 billion PC’s
- 3.6 billion TV viewers
- 4.6 billion mobile connections
- 10 billion digital devices
In 2011, we estimate that PC sales are likely to be in the region of 380 million units and that the combined sales of all non-PC devices will be over 810 million units. These break down as follows:
- Smartphones 375 million
- Laptops 200 million
- Desktops 150 million
- Notebooks 40 million
- Tablets 50 million
It is worth considering that the time it took to reach one million units is as follows:
- Blackberry approx 300 days
- Notebook approx 180 days
- iPhone 74 days
- iPad1 28 days
- Nintendo DS 15 days
The operating systems on smartphones and tablets will continue to evolve without a clear leader on either in 2011. Tablets will offer longer battery life and faster speeds; they will fit in between PCs and smartphones but will eventually compete with PC volumes and not smartphones.
Tablets will have the largest amount of app downloads – with 47 on average for the iPad, compared to Nokia smartphone users with just 7. The iPad2 is expected to have a higher number of app downloads than its predecessor.
Social networking is going from strength to strength. From our research we found that 4 out of 5 consumers belong to a social networking site.
The tablets will enjoy greater penetration from the B2C and B2B markets. The challenges for enterprise will be of course cost of supporting different devices and the threat of virus attacks.
The appetite for more connectivity both inside and outside the home will remain strong. We now seem comfortable carrying more gadgets with us daily and use them for different reasons. The battle of the gadgets continues!