Apparently People Still Want To Buy Tablets

A major new survey has revealed that the market for tablets remains strong, with a surprisingly large proportion of consumers looking to buy new devices.

Despite fears that the growth of super-sized ‘phablet’ devices is killing off the tablet, a Gartner survey of 19,000 consumers survey found that 17 percent intended to buy a tablet in the next 12 months.

One in five users in the markets surveyed (the US, UK, France, China, Brazil and India) also said they are planning to purchase or upgrade a tablet.

Innovative

Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: “Tablet innovation is driven by applications rather than by the hardware. However, most applications work pretty well with first- and second-generation tablet hardware, and because the operating system (OS) can be upgraded for free, the user is not compelled to change the device.”

“Users are less interested in the hardware and more interested in the applications and how devices using the cloud can interact with each other.”

Check out TechWeekEurope’s list of the top 10 tablets for businesses here!

Gartner’s survey found that nearly half (48 percent) of respondents don’t want to replace their device until they absolutely have to, as the purchasing process itself has become more complex now that consumers often have to prioritise which device is most important to them.

About half of the survey respondents plan to remain loyal to their current form factor, especially desktop (65 percent) and laptop users (46 percent). However, many consumers appear to be increasingly uncertain about what device should replace their existing units, showing that companies need to do more to address the wants and needs clearly instead of having products (like phablets) that often overlap.

“Unless new compelling innovation or incentives to upgrade tablets are created, the churn of the mature installed base will continue to fall,” said Ms Escherich.

“The worst-case scenario is that many tablet users will never upgrade or buy a new tablet as phablets and/or two-in-one convertible PCs (both with larger screen) envelop the benefits of a tablet. This scenario would result in real household penetration for tablets falling under 40 per cent in mature markets.”

A recent EE survey found that more than half of UK workers believed tablets will replace laptops in the workplace within the next decade, with almost a third (31 percent) saying that laptop usage in their workplace was declining as employees increasingly look for a more flexible working solution.

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