With the expectations of strong demand for media tablets in second half of 2012, International Data Corporation (IDC) has increase its forecast for the worldwide market to 107.4 million units for the year, up from its previous forecast of 106.1 million units. IDC also revised upward its 2013 forecast number from 137.4 million units to 142.8 million units and expecting that by 2016, the worldwide shipments should reach 222.1 million units.
“Demand for media tablets remains robust, and we see an increasing interest in the category from the commercial side,” said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices at IDC. “We expect pending new products from major players, increasingly affordable mainstream devices, and a huge marketing blitz from Microsoft around Windows 8 to drive increased consumer interest in the category through the end of the year.”
Along with this, IDC also updated its forecast to shift a larger percentage of future units toward iOS. IDC now expects iOS to grow its share of the market in 2012 to 62.5%, up from 58.2% in 2011. While Android’s share expected to slip from 38.7% in 2011 to 36.5% in 2012. IDC expects third-place Blackberry to slip from 1.7% to 1%.
