While Tablets PC such as Apple, Asus and a host of other international brands are poised to overtake the Netbook market space, they will not usurp the popularity of notebooks as there are still lots of applications that need the computing power of a personal computer – especially when it comes to storage and high level number crunching.

This is according to Asgar Mahomed, managing director of digital lifestyle ICT distributor, Esquire Technologies, the recently named Africa Distributor for 2012.

 Mahomed said there would not be much change in consumer patterns in 2012 when it comes to digital lifestyles, but said retailers will need to ensure that the shopping experience they offer carefully considers the growing importance of the mobile shopper.

 “With faster networks, more Web-centric  smartphone devices and the ease of use of making mobile payments, we will see more shoppers paying on mobile devices than in previous years. We will see an ongoing, upward trend here,” said Mahomed.

A recent IBM Benchmark study found that iPad tablet users are more likely to complete a purchase. The conversion rate for iPad users was 6.3% in December 2011, compared with 3.1% for mobile devices overall. “We will also see more consumers continuing to turn to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks – including some new ones that might gather momentum – to solicit suggestions and feedback from social connections before making purchasing decisions.”

Mahomed said tablets will grow “increasingly important and popular during 2012”, adding that this ongoing popularity means that more and more shoppers will be shopping in a “tablet environment”.

“Retailers must ensure that their shopping experiences work well on tablets. Additionally,” he pointed out, “it must be noted that the challenges posed by smartphones are not necessarily the same as the ones posed by tablets. For example, iPad doesn’t support Adobe Flash. This means that if a retailer relies on that programming tool, it will need alternative solutions for its tablet storefront. Moreover, tablet users don’t use a mouse click to click on and zoom in on images. If a retailer’s web site requires a mouse for browsing it might just lose out on a lot of potential tablet sales.” 

Mahomed also said it would be prudent for retailers to be conscious of “maintaining consistency of look and feel” across all channels – including PCs, tablets, mobile devices, print catalogues and brick-and-mortar stores – when re-designing and re-tooling their online storefronts.

“Everything is becoming mobile. We, for instance, saw online video consumption continue to grow during 2011 – and there will be no slowdown this year. Combined with this, there will be an increased consumption of media on mobile devices as users opt for immediacy and convenience.”