Tablet sales skyrocketed from 2010 to 2013 as Apple, Samsung and others introduced these new pieces of innovation to the market. Much like e-readers people don’t replace these every year like they do smartphones. Have tablet sales plateaued? Forrester Research thinks so.
A new Forrester Research report has found that tablet sales are slumping. This isn’t to say that tablets are declining in sales, it’s just that the amount of tablets purchased every year becomes less than the previous year.
For example according to Forrester, tablet sales in 2014 was forecasted at 205.46 million. In 2015, that number becomes 217.84 million, 229.46 million in 2016, 240.16 million in 2017, and 249.95 million in 2018. As you can tell, every year that number grows less and less, but at the same time it is still increasing.
However, there may be an upside to the news. Tablets are becoming increasingly critical for business. More than half of employees use a tablet for work purposes at least once a week, the study says. While those aren’t near the same numbers as laptops and smartphones, it shows a critical presence.
The plateauing of the tablet market is occurring at the same time as e-books. Nielsen Pubtrack data has demonstrated that digital sales have fallen 6% in 2014, which equates to 223 million e-books being sold in the US, down from 240 million units in 2013.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.