Tablet volume growth doubles year on year

The tablet market continues to post strong year on year growth as the market turns its attention to the final quarter and the anticipated strong pre-Christmas activity, says market research company GfK.

Since last October, tablet volume growth has risen 50% and now accounts for almost two thirds of all personal computing devices bought in October, compared to only half last year.

GfK states that the increasing affordability of media tablets is driving consumer growth, with average prices declining by 25% compared to last year.

The result of increased popularity and affordability – driven by a move to smaller screen sizes – GfK says, has ensured that the traditional notebooks market has “suffered”, declining by 15% year on year in volume demand.

Higher-end ‘ultrathin’ notebooks have increased 10% year on year, however the category still accounts for less than 10% of the mobile computing category overall.

Looking ahead to Christmas, GfK expects tablets to continue to grow in market volume as they become “ubiquitous” in major retail stores and are promoted ahead of traditional computing devices, which are likely to become “marginalised” over this time.