Tablet sales will be more than 30 million ahead of laptop sales in 2013
It is expected that more than 240 million tablet PCs will be shipped during 2013, effortlessly surpassing the 207 million notebook PCs projected to ship during the year, said Christopher Riley, managing director of laptop and accessories retailer, The Notebook Company.
“We are also witnessing this trend at The Notebook Company,” said Riley, “and have been since the introduction of the first Apple iPad.”
He confirmed that the company is currently selling more tablets than laptops – a trend it expects to carry on “into the future”.
According to market research firm NPD Group DisplaySearch, tablet shipments are projected to grow 64% in 2013 compared to 2012.
“Projections are also being made,” said Riley, “that, by 2017, nearly three tablets will be sold to every one laptop.
“In fact,” Riley quipped, “the name of the company – The Notebook Company – is now essentially misleading, as we sell more tablets than notebooks.”
But Riley said while sales of laptops might be under pressure the company is hoping to increase its business as a “lot of clients will be looking to make a switch to laptops rather than upgrading or buying new desktops”.
He believes this could turn into a “fairly big” market for the company over the next 12 – 24 months.