77% of Tablet Users Say the Device Replaces PC Actions

When asked whether they used other connected devices more often or less often since purchasing a tablet, 35 percent of tablet owners who also owned a desktop computer reported using their desktop less often or not at all, while 32 percent of those who also owned laptops, said they used their laptop less often or never since acquiring a tablet, according to the Nielsen Company.

Those findings do not necessarily settle the issue of whether a tablet can completely replace a PC. That will be true in some, perhaps many cases over time, especially as tablets become devices that work right out of the box and do not have to rely on a PC for configuration or updates.

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Tablet Usage Affecting Other Devices

Around half of all tablet owners reported being the only ones in their household using their particular tablet, while 43 percent said they shared the tablet with others, according to Nielsen. Eight percent said that while they own a tablet used by other household members, they do not use it themselves.

When asked whether they used other connected devices more often or less often since purchasing a tablet, 35 percent of tablet owners who also owned a desktop computer reported using their desktop less often or not at all, while 32 percent of those who also owned laptops, said they used their laptop less often or never since acquiring a tablet, Nielsen says.

Twenty-seven percent of those who also own eReaders said they use their eReader less often or not at all, the same percentage as those who also own portable media players. One-in-four tablet owners who own portable games consoles are using those devices less often, if at all, since purchasing a tablet.

Are New Tablets Taking a Bite out of Apple's iPad? Not Yet

PCs Getting Less Use at Small Businesses

A survey of 2,223 owners and managers at companies with less than 500 employees, most of them with between five and 499 workers, suggests that "PC" use is declining, while other digital devices, including tablets and smartphones are taking up the slack.

Beyond the finding that nine percent of business owners were using iPads (as of November 2010), the study found that 79 percent of small- and midsize-business owners used a desktop computer, down from 83 percent in 2010.

Some 16 percent used a netbook or notebook, down from 21 percent earlier in 2010.  About 60 percent used a laptop, down from 65 percent.

Note the trend: tablets up, desktop PCs, netbooks down, notebooks down.

About 37 percent used a smartphone or other personal digital assistant, up from 27 percent the prior year.

Fully 31 percent were using mobile applications, a category that wasn’t even measured the previous year, on smartphones, cell phones, or tablet computers.

What all of that might mean is that many business and work tasks really do not require much in the way of content creation, beyond replying to emails or social media messages.

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Businesses Up Tablet, Notebook, E-Reader Spending 30%

Business spending on 3G and 4G devices such as tablets, notebooks, and e-readers was up nearly 30 percent in 2010, compared to 2009.

“A key take away from the research is that the non-handset spending increase trend seems to be universal across all sizes of business,” says Greg Potter, research analyst.  “There are some slight variations in some of the vertical segments but, they too, share a robust 2010 and have a very healthy five-year forecast.”

Enterprise spending makes up over 62 percent of business spending on non-handset data services, spending over $1.9 billion in 2010.

Enterprise (1,000 to 4,999 employees) will increase spending in 2011 by 19.5 percent in the professional services vertical. Small office and home office spending will surpass $275 billion by 2014, In-Stat projects.

The healthcare and social services vertical represents the largest share of spending, over $400 million in 2010.

Corning Expects High Demand for Tablet, Smartphone Glass

Corning expects its annual sales to grow more than 50 percent to $10 billion by 2014, driven by surging demand for ultra-thin glass used in television monitors, smart phones and touch-screen tablets.

The world's biggest maker of liquid-crystal-display glass predicts the global appetite for flat-panel LCD TVs, computers and mobile devices will drive up industry volume to around 5 billion square feet in 2014 from 3.1 billion square feet now.

Corning estimates that tablet computer sales could grow from roughly 20 million units last year to almost 180 million by 2014.

Corning Expects High Demand for TV Glass - NYTimes.com

Android Tablets Start to Take Market Share

No surprise here: as Android tablets appear in the market, Apple is going to lose some market share.

Tablets will be Used for Email, Multimedia, Personal Information Management

The top three uses for future tablet owners are email, personal information management and multimedia consumption (audio, video and gaming), In-Stat predicts.

“Last year’s small crop of tablets was being touted as potential e-readers; a way to compete against the extremely popular Amazon Kindle lineup,” says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst. “But this next generation of tablets is clearly being marketed as consumer multimedia consumption devices positioned to compete squarely against the Apple iPad.”

If the In-Stat predictions prove correct, the tablet will emerge as a device positioned about half way between a smartphone and a PC, as well as half way between an iPod and a PC. the notion of an iPad being an "iPod on steroids," or an "iPod with a bigger screen" will be resisted in some quarters. But the notion has resonance.

In-Stat - Press Releases

Where Do Tablets Fit in Computing Devices Spectrum?

Ever since the iPad launched, lots of us have been trying to figure out where the tablet device fits in the spectrum of computing devices. Nobody has trouble with iPods, though the iPod "touch" causes questions. People understand PCs, notebooks and even netbooks. People have no trouble figuring out where smartphones fit.

Tablets are harder to categorize. They seem to be "content consumption" devices, but it now appears that is the case both for business and consumer applications. Content consumption in the former case means access to email, instant messaging and other Web-based applications. In the latter case, though email is helpful, video and gaming seem to be the drivers.

But it probably won't be the case that tablets are clearly distinguishable by type of user or mode: business or consumer.

Deloitte predicts that in 2011 more than 50 percent of computing devices sold globally will not be PCs. While PC sales are likely to reach almost 400 million units, Deloitte’s estimate for combined sales of smartphones, tablets and non-PC netbooks is well over 400 million.

Unlike the 2009 netbook phenomenon, where buyers chose machines that were essentially less powerful versions of traditional PCs, the 2011 computing market will be dominated by devices that use different processing chips and operating systems than those used for PCs over the past 30 years.

Deloitte’s view is that traditional PCs will still be the workhorse computing platform for most of the globe in 2011. PC unit sales are expected to rise by more than 15 percent year-over-year, and the global installed base of PCs stands at over 1.5 billion units. At the end of 2011, non-PC computers will still represent only about 25 percent of all computing devices.

However, when looking at the future of computing devices, 2011 may well mark the tipping point as we move from a world of mostly standardized PC-like devices, containing standardized chips and software, to a far more heterogeneous environment.

In 2011, buyers of computing functionality, whether in the enterprise or consumer sector, will face some interesting choices. In this new era where more than half of all new computing devices sold are non-PCs, the ranges of price, performance, form factor and other variable will be at least an order of magnitude wider. Choosing will take longer, and will need to be done more carefully.

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Role of the PC Has Changed, Says Deloitte

Do Tablets Affect When We Read?

Tablets might change how some people read, what they read, how much they read or what else they give up to read. Tablets might also change when people read. After analyzing about one million articles saved for later reading by Read It Later, the company suggests that tablets already are shifting the consumption of content, at least on the part of tablet owners.

The data suggests that iPad owners, for example, shift much of their reading away from PCs during work hours and towards "personal prime time" in the evenings.

Looking at the number of articles read each hour by Read It Later users on their computers, a significant amount of content was shifted towards the end of a user’s day (6PM – 9PM).

When a reader is given a choice about how to consume their content, a major shift in behavior occurs. They no longer consume the majority of their content during the day, on their computer. Instead they shift that content to prime time and onto a device better suited for consumption.

That reinforces the notion that iPads and tablets might wind up being used extensively "on the couch" and in the home, rather than as a replacement for a PC on business trips. One also wonders what happens to TV viewing, as reading is relatively more-immersive activity than much music listening, which happens when users are doing something else.

Is Mobile Affecting When We Read?

Tablets are the New Gaming and Video Platform

Any brand-new consumer electronics category will feature some new lead app, feature and use case. For the iPod it was music, for the iPod Touch it arguably has been games and web apps. For the new category of tablets, it appears games and video consumption actually are emerging as the lead apps, even though tablets continue to be used for some business applications and light consumer computing tasks as well.

Wi-Fi remains the connection of choice. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says half a million tablets on the AT&T network had active 3G connections. But something on the order of three million tablets get sold each quarter.

For most consumer products, price remains the single most important factor in consumers’ purchase decisions. But tablets appear to have been somewhat different in the early going, largely because of the early adopter profile of most Apple iPad buyers. 

Price ranks fourth among purchase considerations in one survey by NPD Group. Only 77 percent of potential tablet buyers say price factors very highly in their purchase decision. Click images for a larger view. 

Yankee Group : Research Report

US Tablet Sales Will More Than Double This Year

Forrester Research has revised its estimate for U.S. consumer tablet purchases for 2010 upward to 10.3 million units, and the firm expects sales to more than double in 2011 to 24.1 million units.

Of those sales, the lion's share will be iPads, and despite many would-be competitors that will be released at CES, we see Apple commanding the vast majority of the tablet market through 2012.

One major assumption that changed in the Forrester Research model is the replacement rate, which the firm now believes will be closer to that of MP3 players or iPhones than to that of PCs.

Although they are certainly used for productivity, tablets are proving themselves to be "lifestyle devices" at home and at work, and as such we think consumers will upgrade to newer models more rapidly than they would a more utilitarian device like a PC.

Forrester Research, though originally optimistic about tablet prospects, says it underestimated demand. I'd have to say I was not so sure about them, at first. There typically are two fundamental paths for a PC type device to establish a permanent place in the market. The devices must displace an existing category, or must create a brand-new category. So far, there remain elements of both types of activity.

But the longer term trend seems to be that a new category actually is being created, more akin to MP3 players than PCs. For consumers who mostly want a content consumption device, the tablet can replace a PC.

For users who must create content and "do work," the tablet represents an additional category of devices to own and use.

US Tablet Sales Will More Than Double This Year | Forrester Blogs

Enterprises Adopting iPads

About seven percent of corporate respondents surveyed by ChangeWave now say their company provides employees with Tablet devices, up about one percentage point since ChangeWave's previous survey in August.

The Apple iPad (82 percent) remains by far the most popular tablet for business purposes. H-P has 11 percent share and Dell has seven percent share.

As with other Apple products, the iPad’s satisfaction ratings are outstanding, with 69 percent of corporate users saying their company is very satisfied and another 28 percent somewhat satisfied with the Apple device.

The larger point is that tablet devices, lead by the iPad are finding a home in enterprises very quickly. The ChangeWave survey also suggests that enterprise adoption could double, to 14 percent, over the next quarter.

About 73 percent of respondents say the iPads are used for Internet access, while 69 percent report they are used for checking email. About 67 percent report that iPads get used for work away from the office.

Sales support is an application used by 46 percent of respondents, while 45 percent use iPads for customer presentations. In about 38 percent of respondents say iPads are used for laptop replacement.

ChangeWave survey - apple ipad tablet demand | InvestorPlace

Nook Color will get Froyo update, become a "real tablet"

Barnes & Noble plans to introduce an Android-powered color e-reader, the Nook Color. The device will have an seven-inch screen, as did the earlier device running Android 2.1.

The Android 2.2 update for the device which should give users access to the Android Marketplace as well as a more typical home screen, potentially making it one of the cheapest Android tablets on the market.

If the device retails for about $250, it would undercut pricing of somewhat similar devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

If you had any doubt that parts of the e-reader market would overlap with the tablet PC market, this move should eliminate those doubts.

Nook Color will get Froyo update, become a "real tablet"

Netbook Demand Seems Weaker: Issue is Why

A ChangeWave survey of 3,108 consumers during October suggests essentially-flat demand for desktop PCs, unchanged levels of demand for laptops and lower demand for netbooks. Most observers will be quick to point to stronger demand for tablet devices as the reason for the lower interest in netbooks.

The percentage of respondents saying they plan on buying a desktop over the next 90 days (six percent of respondents) has ticked up one point since ChangeWave's survey in August, while planned purchases of laptops (eight percent ) remain unchanged.

Consumer interest in netbooks (14 percent of respondents) is down about 10 percentage points since the June 2009 survey.

Changewave survey - tablet pc and apple ipad

Will Tablets Depress Mobile Broadband Sales?

It's too early to tell, but one wonders whether tablet sales actually will depress some amount of mobile broadband data plan sales int he short term, even though logic suggests they will increase demand, long term.

It has become routine over the last two years to hear executives at cable and telecom companies point to the sluggish economy and low housing starts as the reason for similarly stubborn consumer resistance to spending more money on some services.

It looks like nothing has changed since the start of 2009. That's significant because it suggests consumers are making deliberate choices in spending on tablets that basically come down to funding tablet purchases by not spending elsewhere in the household budgets. 

It might only be slight issue at the moment, or a near term issue, but one wonders whether a shift to Wi-Fi-using mobile devices is beginning to lessen demand for smartphones, higher-end smartphones and data plans. And, if so, the related question is whether the substitution is just a temporary issue.

Most reports seem to suggest that most iPads, for example, are Wi-Fi units, not 3G-connected. If tablet popularity grows, and at this point it seems to be growing, then more discretionary end user income could be shifted to device purchases and reliance on Wi-Fi, and away from smartphone data plans or PC dongles.

It won't take a user long to figure out that he or she can buy an iPad for about 10 months worth of a 3G mobile data plan costing $60 a month, or an Android tablet for the equivalent of 10 months of smartphone service at $30 a month.

For many users, that will be a trade off that seems logical, since at least half of all iPad use seems to occur at home, where most people have Wi-Fi, while perhaps 10 percent to 25 percent takes place at work, where there often is Wi-Fi. It does not appear that many people actually use their iPads "in transit."

Long term, one suspects tablet ownership will increase appetite for, and use of, mobile broadband services. Ironically, such demand might also lessen appetite for sizable smartphone data plans. Some users might conclude that a Mi-Fi type service, which can supply Wi-Fi for a tablet, smartphone and notebook, all at once, works well enough.

Rival Tablets Not Dead, No Matter What Apple Says

Apple says seven-inch tablets will be "dead on arrival," but developers and retailers are not convinced, and consumers will have to make the call about demand for tablets in various form factors, says the Wall Street Journal.

Verizon Wireless soon will be selling the Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Tab—a seven-inch tablet that runs on Google's Android software. Next year, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. plans to release its seven-inch PlayBook.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says 7-inch devices were too small to create great tablet applications. 'Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small and increase the size next year, thereby abandoning both customers and developers who jumped on the seven-inch bandwagon with an orphan product,' Jobs says.

The argument for a smaller form factor is pretty simple. For many, perhaps most users, the smallest devices are the essential devices carried everywhere in a purse, pocket, backpack or briefcase. For most users, the phone is basic, but iPods might be a close second.

Traveling workers mostly consider their phones and notebook PCs to be essential, with all other devices secondary. Some people traveling for work say they carry both an iPad and a PC, but over time, I suspect that will shake out in favor of one or the other devices. For those users, a 10-inch device is better.

Some day, when prices drop, that might also be a viable option for college students when going to class. For some, though, who carry a phone all the time and a PC when traveling, and for whom content creation is a big reason why the PC is carried, the iPad will remain a third or fourth device choice (iPods might be most commonly carried, after the phone and PC).

Many users, especially those whose work allows them to travel with just a smartphone, leaving the PC at home or the office, will find an iPad a reasonable option. But that's why there would seem to be a market opportunity for tablets in a couple formats. When a tablet can be the second or third device (assuming the iPod is the second device), the bigger screen is helpful.

When the tablet has to be the third or fourth device, there are weight and bulk issues that could be important.

But the market will decide.

Connected Device Market Potential Dwarfs Phones

Aside from notebook PCs, many Americans now own portable or mobile devices that already are capable of mobile communications, or increasingly will be capable of mobile communications.

According to Nielsen, the typical owner of any one of these devices actually also owns three to five additional devices within these categories.

That means a large potential base of mobile and portable devices that will be candidates for Wi-Fi and mobile broadband services in the future, in numbers that dwarf the installed base of "phones."

What remains to be developed are pricing plans that account for ownership and use of multiple devices, most of which are designed for content consumption or entertainment more than communications. Broadband plans that allow a user to connect multiple devices at various times, at prices deemed reasonable, will be a huge opportunity, going forward.

So far, most consumers have shown only modest interest in $60 a month plans that connect PCs, though mobile service providers now are experimenting with demand for $15 to $45 a month plans for tablet devices and smartphones.

Those are steps in the right direction, but what ultimately will be needed are the equivalent of family plans for data devices, where the "family" might be a single user or household wanting to use multiple devices on a single access account.

Laptop, Netbook Sales Dip as Tablets Grow

Market researcher Gartner has trimmed its global forecasts for laptop shipments, but still expects a 26 percent increase to 214 million units this year. The firm says the average selling price of portable PCs has fallen six percent to $668 from $710 a year ago.

Netbooks likely have been affected. The Consumer Electronics Association predicts U.S. retail sales of netbooks, which more than doubled last year, will decline 12 percent this year.

Tablets, Cloud Computing are at Hype Cycle Peak

Media tablets, private cloud computing, and 3D flat-panel TVs and displays are some of the technologies that have moved into the Peak of Inflated Expectations, according to the 2010 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle by Gartner.

Click on the image for a larger view. 

That virtually guarantees there will be a period of relative disillusionment coming for tablet devices and cloud computing. That is not to say they will not be important, only that the wave of hype now is cresting.

Gartner's 2010 Hype Cycle Special Report Evaluates Maturity of 1,800 Technologies