Tablets market growth is set to see slow down this year, said IDC.

IDC, the IT market research agency, has lowered its forecast for tablet market size. Tablet market will increase 12.1 percent in 2014 to 245.4 million units against 51.8 percent growth achieved in 2013.

Slow down is mainly due to two reasons. First, consumers are keeping their tablets, especially higher-cost models from major vendors, far longer than earlier anticipated. When they buy a new one, they are often passing their existing tablet off to another member of the family.

Second, the rise of phablets – smartphones with 5.5-inch and larger screens – are troubling the tablet market because phablets can manage their work.

The phablet share of smartphone shipments has more than doubled in the past one year, from 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to 10.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, representing 30.1 million units shipped.

Products with larger screens — like Microsoft’s new 2-in-1, the 12-inch Surface Pro 3 — are expected to play a greater role in the market going forward.

The average selling price for these devices will remain roughly 50 percent higher than the average sub-8-inch device.

IDC predicted that Microsoft is expected to benefit from the shift as the share for Windows-based devices is expected to double between now and 2018.

TelecomLead News Team