Tablet Penetration

In comparison to smart phones and mobile devices, tablet penetration is lower globally, although in the last two years there has been an explosive growth in tablet sales. In 2014, the total number of consumers owning a tablet reached 350 million, which is 5% of the global population. Worldwide growth is expected to increase up to 15% by the end of 2017. (DigitalPortal, 2014) The main reasons for this growth are the special characteristics of tablet devices, which are smaller, lighter and more portable.

Smartphones

Tablet use and smart phone use are quite different. Tablets can better accommodate visually stunning and interactive multimedia. Global sales of mobile devices has been increasing each year, driven in particular by emerging economies,

Currently most of the devices need to connect with a smartphone or tablet for most of their functionality. The other difficulty is that consumers still cannot perceive how a wearable device may be of great benefit to them. Other obstacles to slow adoption include price, lack of functionality, and style. For smartwatches to become mainstream they must become standalone computing devices with considerably more functionality. (BusinessInsider, 2015) Price, privacy, security, and the lack of “actionable” and inconsistent information from such devices are among consumers’ main apprehensions.

Discussion

Tablets

It is predicted that 1 in 5 people will use a tablet device by 2018. (DigitalPortal, 2014) Over the last number of years the share of website traffic from tablets and has trebled in the past year according to research by Adobe. (Adobe, 2014) Tablets’ share of website traffic reached 10% of total website traffic in 2014. (Cisco, 2015) The table below show the current market share by manufacturer. (InternationalDataCorporation, 2015)

Manufacturer Market Share (%)

Apple 27.6

Samsung 17.5

Asus 5.0

Lenovo 4.9

Amazon 1.4

Other

This is shown in their foray into wearables device technology. They see the future in an array of virtual-reality and wearable devices. Huawei’s new wearables are part of a push at the world’s second-largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer after Ericsson to keep up fast growth at its consumer business, and this growth is still very dependent on smartphones.

While fitness bands, smart watches and other wearables are already established in the market, many of them have under-delivered on expectations. Consider that 33% of surveyed consumers who purchased a wearable technology device more than a year ago now say they no longer use the device at all or use it infrequently. (PWC, 2014)

Both the consumer market and the business to business market could potentially be revolutionized by the mainstreaming of wearable technology. Some of the industries it is likely to have the largest impact are the following;

Entertainment, Media and