Tablet Sales Growth

Tablets will comprise about 80 percent of all computers sold by 2016, according to the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) most recent industry research.

Shawn DuBravac, the CEA’s chief economist and research director, and Jack Cutts, CEA’s business intelligence senior manager, gave this bit of data along with a wide overview of the computer and tablet market at the CEA Research Summit.

DuBravac noted that tablets now have a 40 percent home penetration rate and the products future, at least for the short term, is guaranteed to keep climbing. However, he added that the market is quickly shifting as average selling prices are falling for the most popular 7-inch and 8-inch tablets. This should result in a $99 tablet being available by the holiday selling season, said Cutts.

Looking further down the road, DuBravac wondered how long tablets will sustain their growth.

“We might hit a point in say 18 months when tablet adoption hits a wall,” he said.

In the meantime, tablet ownership levels will continue to rise. The CEA expects the majority of this growth to come at the expense of desktops and netbooks, and by 2016 the household penetration of tablets and desktop PC will be about dead even, at 60 percent. Right now desktop PC penetration is at 70 percent.