Tablet Shipments Could Overtake PC Shipments in Q4 2013
More and more consumers are picking up their tablets to do things they used to do on desktop computers. So when will tablets actually overtake PCs in terms of usage?
Though the answer to that question remains uncertain, analyst Sameer Singh projects that quarterly shipments of tablets are likely to leapfrog shipments of PCs by the first quarter of 2014. However, he notes that “a more balanced substation rate projection” would predict this changing of the guard happening as early as the fourth quarter of 2013, when tablet shipments will hit 75 million to 80 million units.
“This shift is likely to be driven by quicker adoption of high quality, cost-effective tablets in emerging markets and the resulting impact on PC replacement rates,” Singh writes.
Google, for its part, is starting to count tablets as desktop computers. The search giant made this clear with its update to AdWords, which removed the ability of advertisers to target ads at tablet-specific landing pages.
