Growth in the sales of tablets will continue to slow this year with the numbers shipped predicted to rise by around 8 per cent, according to new research. Research firm Gartner estimates that worldwide, 233 million tablets will be sold during the year, following a difficult year in 2014 for this category of mobile computing devices.
In the previous two years sales of tablets experienced a double-digit rise. But since then there has been a substantial drop in sales caused by tablets lasting longer and a lack of innovation in the hardware, according to Gartner research director Ranjit Antwal.
Overall, Gartner estimates that during this year 2.5bn PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones will be sold around the globe, an increase of 3.9% on the last year. Nearly 2bn of that figure will be made up with mobile phones, which will experience an almost 4 per cent rise in sales.
In a research note released to coincide with the start of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Gartner predicts that the mid-range smartphone market will become squeezed, as buyers increasingly opt for either premium high end handsets or cheaper entry level mobiles. It says this trend began to emerge in 2014, with movement towards the high end of the market driven by the new iPhone models.
However, it says Google's Android will continue to dominate the operating system market, with its share growing by a quarter in 2015, after it surpassed the 1bn shipment mark last year.
