IDC Adjusts Global Tablet PC Sales Forecast Upward to 62.5 M. Units for 2011

Taipei, Sept. 26, 2011 (CENS)--Witnessing tablet PCs extremely sought-after worldwide, the global market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC) has raised its global sales volume forecast to 62.5 million units for this year, representing a 16% increase from 53.5 million units projected earlier.

Hot sales of Apple Inc.'s iPad are among the main reasons why IDC has decided to adjust upward its projection recently. IDC opines that the product will account for a nearly 70% share of the estimated global tablet PC sales figure mentioned above as the biggest contributor to the market this year.

IDC's optimism about iPad makes a lot of sense, as sales of the product reached 9.25 million units to command a 68.3% share of the global market in the second quarter of this year, when a total of 13.6 million units of various tablets were sold worldwide. The product's market share in the second quarter was higher than 65.7% achieved in the first quarter.

iPad's huge success notwithstanding, the market is still likely to tilt toward to Android-powered tablet PCs, noted IDC, indicating that Android tablets are expected to gradually eat into iPad's share in the future, when more models of Android tablets will land in the market. Eroded by Android models, iPad's long-term market share will drop to around 50%.

However, IDC also stressed that Apple's leading status in the tablet PC segment is hardly shaken up in the short term, with a few competitors having been fretted by iPad's huge global dominance for the moment and said to consider withdrawing from the competitive landscape.

Noteworthy is that while benefiting players in the field, the rise of tablet PCs, however, has also taken a toll on traditional PCs. IDC and another market researcher Gartner have both cut their global PC sales growth forecasts to only 2.8% and 3.8%, respectively, for the year.