Contextual Record - Market Report

The Threat of computer tablets

At the start of 2012 it was studied that consumers used laptops and desktops-pc three times more than computer tablets, but now the market for tablets has shot up and only 4% behind laptops and desktop-pc’s.

We will be comparing the market value and usage on laptops and desktop-pc against computer tablets to see which of these consumers prefer the most. We will have drawn our market research from the online store Amazon and from the retail store Curry’s/PC World; here we will evaluate the amount sold but also look at buyer’s reviews and opinions to gather an overall review.

What consumers purchased, what they liked and disliked about the product, the positive and negative aspects of the product and whether or not they would recommend these product to other consumers.

Here you can see the massive increase in demand for tablets. It was researched 16 plus desires a tablet but mainly for entertainment, recently McDonald’s have installed tablets within their restaurants to attract more customers, we believe the reason being is because the recent demands for computer tablets.

Although 16 plus desire tablets it was shown the majority of age’s 16-24 year olds still require laptops for educational purposes or for office workplaces.

So in one argument tablets can be classified as a source of entertainment device, but in another argument tablets can be just as good in office work situations for example a meeting or to quickly demonstrate a certain topic. Since the tablet is more compactable and mobile this would be the ideal computer tablet for these situations.

Expanding on my previous topic the research explains what the main function for the laptop; desktop-pc and tablet are used for. Research show that tablets a best suited for playing playing games, streaming movies and TV shows, checking and managing e-mails and social media. Where as laptops and desktop-pc aim more towards detailed features such as surfing the Internet and work-based purposes and creative purposes, with laptops and desktop-pc they have the capability for high usage software like adobe creative software, word document software and other important usages.

Amazon have devised a guideline system for customers who are looking to buy either a tablet or a laptop and unsure which to purchase.

We researched and found a website called ‘Which?’, it is a customer review website and we thought adding customer reviews and opinions into our report  would benefit greatly because of its essentialness to see the views of the customers, who at home already purchased these specific product reviews are rather crucial to the market industry as one review whether it be positive or negative could be the difference between the purchase of that one product.

Quoted from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2645115

“Users continue to move away from the traditional PC (notebooks and desktop-based) as it becomes more of a shared content creation tool, while the greater flexibility of tablets, hybrids and lighter notebooks address users increasingly different demands.” – Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

This quote shows the popularity of tablets will continue to rise within the next few years to come. The potential market is too great so as the tablet evolves to meet the demands of the consumers, sooner or later tablets will achieve the inevitable and overtime desktop-pc and laptops will no longer be needed.

“Complimentary smaller tablets will take over from the larger tablets form factors, providing the added mobility that consumers desire at a lower cost and will complete with hybrids for consumer attention.” - Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

Following on from this quote the theory evidentially shows and supports the first quote. As the demands for the tablet grows they will change, evolve and suite to each individual persons needs but as the meaning not only will the desktop-pc and laptops be out dated but also the founding tablets, but the upside to this is the variety of it will bring the fitting styles to each individual.

Worldwide device shipments by Segment

PC (laptops and desktops)

2012 – 341, 273 units

2013 – 299, 342 units

2014 – 277, 939 units

2015 – 268, 491 units

Tablets

2012 – 119, 529 units

2013 – 179, 531 units

2014 – 263, 450 units

2015 – 324, 565 units

This year (2014) the worldwide tablet market has grown 478 with lower average prices are attracting new users. Consumers continue to purchase tablets as an additional device that they can carry with them.  Gather conducted surveys in 2013 across Europe and Internationally states such as America and Japan and they discovered over two thirds of tablets were purchased and used outside the home of various activities.

But on the other hand the graphs shows a 7% decline for PC (laptops and desktop-based) from 2013. Gartner also conducted another survey for PC and it showed less than 8% would replace their PC with a tablet meaning they would buy a tablet as well as having a PC. But as we discovered earlier tablets will find a way to replace PC’s altogether by being able to do everything a PC can do but more.

So to conclude the future market for PC’s is uncertain as technology develops further and further into the future it is cloudy but one thing is for sure tablets are here to stay and surely evolve into a more productive and efficient technological product.