“Apple Inc is expected to unveil thinner and more powerful iPads on Thursday ahead of the holiday season but may struggle to arouse passion for tablets among consumers already over-supplied with hand-held, touch-screen devices,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters.
“Tablet sales are set to rise only 11 percent this year, according to new forecasts by tech research firm Gartner, compared to 55 percent growth last year, even as smartphone sales continue to soar and PC sales trickle back,” Rigby reports. “Tablet sales for Apple, which defined the category with the iPad just four years ago, have fallen for two straight quarters. Investors remain focused on the iPhone, Apple’s main revenue generator, but a prolonged downturn in iPad sales would threaten about 15 percent of the company’s revenue.”
“More than 50 percent of households in the United States, for example, already have one or more tablets, and are waiting longer to replace them. ‘Going beyond 50 percent will take a while,’ said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner,” Rigby reports. “Tablets now find themselves squeezed from below by ever-larger smartphones, such as Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus… and from above by the latest lightweight laptops. Gartner is forecasting that this ‘ultramobile premium’ segment – for example Apple’s MacBook Air… will be the fastest-growing device category next year, rather than tablets.”
Read more in the full article here.
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