Chances are it won’t have escaped your attention that things haven’t been looking too rosy for global tablet PC sales as of late. Sure there are millions of the things flying off the shelves every week, but the segments growth first slowed to a trickle and is heading slowly but surely for decline/freefall. What’s interesting in this instance however is that as far as many analysts are concerned, the problem could be the fact that the majority of consumers are just too happy with what they’ve already go to even think about upgrading.
Or in other words, it’s the fact that today’s tablet PCs are so damn good that’s likely to cause problems in selling tomorrow’s.
Over recent months, it’s safe to say that overall interest in the tablet PC market as a whole has never been higher. These once-niche devices have been catapulted into the global spotlight and are to an extent as much of an everyday norm as a toothbrush for most. Those that don’t already have a tablet PC plan to buy one in the future and those already playing with theirs are slowly but surely ousting their home computers and switching to the mobile way of life.
On the whole therefor it’s a segment that’s full of promise and one that the world has fallen in love with. As such, you’d be forgiven for thinking that tablet PC sales are only expected to grow over the coming years as bigger and better devices flood the market…you’d also be dead wrong.
As for the reason – the general consensus among analysts seems to be that unlike various other device market segment where new is best and products are somewhat disposable, it’s turned out to be the opposite for tablet PCs. For the most part, those that invested in an iPad for example even two to three years ago still have a high-quality tablet PC that does everything they could ever want it to do and more. And while it might be a tempting prospect to upgrade to the shiny-new iPad Air with its sleek frame and higher power, do they actually need to do so in any way, shape or form?
Of course they don’t – and that’s why they’re staying put.
The same can also be said across the entirety of the Android tablet market too, where vendors are finding it more difficult than ever to sell their slates in high volumes. It doesn’t matter how much power they stick under the hood, how high the screen’s ppi goes or really how nice the thing looks and feels – tablets PCs have been universally adopted as faithful long-term workhorses and not temporary toys that are disposable.
It’s quite the opposite tale in the Smartphone segment however where each and every day is peppered with frenzied rumors about what might be coming out way in the next 12-months.
The problems faced by the tablet PC market right now are quite intriguingly paradoxical – we’ve never been more dependent on them and never needed them more, but at the same time we’re just not buying any of the damn things!