A forecast published today by market intelligence company Gartner suggests that Apple’s combined market share of mobile phones, tablets and PCs will grow from just under 10 percent to over 14 percent by 2014 – shipping almost 3m devices this year, and rising to over 3.5m next year.
Gartner is predicting that while PC sales will fall 10.6 percent year-on-year, and phones grow at a modest 4.3 percent, tablets will grow 67.9 percent …
While Android tablet sales have overtaken iPad sales, the Android market is of course split across multiple manufacturers, with Apple remaining the top vendor.
Steve Jobs famously predicted that PCs would become trucks, with many finding that a tablet meets their computing needs in a cheaper and more portable form-factor. The lifecycle of smartphones has also slowed in recent years as developed markets reach saturation point and the economy has led many to delay upgrades. Apple’s share of the mobile phone market grew
Another trend which Gartner expects to continue is a shift towards cheaper tablets, with not even the iPad immune, as customers favour the cheaper iPad mini over the original.
