150 million tablets etc to ship worldwide in 2015

Stephen Withers
Monday, 17 January 2011 12:07

IT Industry - Market

An industry analyst is predicting 150 million tablets and other portable Internet devices will ship in 2015, with the biggest share going into the Asia Pacific region.

Technology analyst firm Ovum has predicted annual sales of mobile Internet devices will reach 150 million by 2015.

The category is defined as mobile devices in tablet, clamshell and convertible form factors (excluding smartphones) with Internet connectivity and that run a 'lite' operating system (as opposed to a netbook or notebook computer running Windows, Mac OS X or Linux).

While the greatest penetration of such devices is expected to be in North America and Western Europe, Ovum predicts that Asia Pacific will take delivery of the largest fraction (35%) of shipments.

"This huge growth in shipments will be dominated by tablet-style technologies such as the iPad and will mainly be driven by consumers buying devices to complement their smartphones," said Tony Cripps, principal analyst at Ovum. "This will either be as a 'third device' where there is a high penetration [of] PCs or the primary computing device where there is low-penetration."

Not only does Asia Pacific have a relatively low penetration of PCs, it represents a huge addressable market.

What about 'lite' OS market shares? See page 2.