Tablet Market Saturation

The holidays proved to be a boon for the tablet market. Worldwide shipments of the iPad, Kindle, Galaxy Note, and other tablets grew to 76.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. That's 62.4 percent growth over the previous quarter. For the full year of 2013, tablet shipments totaled 217.1 million, up from 144.2 million in 2012 -- which equals a growth rate of 50.6 percent.

These latest figures come from a new survey by research firm IDC, which shows that even though the tablet market is clearly displaying strong growth, it appears to be slowing.

The fourth quarter of 2013 was up 28.2 percent over the same quarter of 2012, but 2012 showed a growth rate of 87.1 percent over 2011.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that markets such as the US are reaching high levels of consumer saturation and while emerging markets continue to show strong growth this has not been enough to sustain the dramatic worldwide growth rates of years past," IDC research director Tom Mainelli said in a statement. "We expect commercial purchases of tablets to continue to accelerate in mature markets, but softness in the consumer segment -- brought about by high penetration rates and increased competition for the consumer dollar -- point to a more challenging environment for tablets in 2014 and beyond."