Tablet Sales

First quarter 2014 proved to be a somewhat discouraging one for tablet vendors, as unit shipments declined 30 percent. Growth will resume over the course of this year, however, according to the latest market forecast from ABI Research.

Branded OEM tablet shipments will rebound and close out the year exceeding 200 million, ABI forecasts in its Media Tablets, Ultrabooks & eReaders Market Research. Moreover, ABI says 2014 “should be a watershed year for the tablet installed base, with active Android devices surpassing iOS for the first time.”

“Tablet hardware sales from branded OEMs are likely to top US$85 billion this year,” ABI senior practice director Jeff Orr was quoted in a press release. “We have yet to reach the top of the tablet market and with many world regions just now starting to adopt, the best is yet to come.”

ABI notes that “Intel aims to make a large splash during 2014 with a projected 40 million devices powered by its processors.” The market research company anticipates that smaller manufacturers in China and Taiwan developing next-generation Android tablets will account for a significant percentage.