Over 10 million tablet PCs are likely to be sold around the world this year, according to a Deloitte survey that is in line with a recent study by Gartner. The survey forecasts a global market for iPad up to 55 million units in 2011 after 19.5 million in 2010. While some observers consider the tablet devices as having little processing power and aimed only for media consumption, in the year 2011, more than 25 percent of all tablets will be purchased by businesses and that number should grow in 2012, says Deloitte’s annual forecast on the sector.
The year will mark the end of the reign of computers and the advent of laptops will be comparatively more, Deloitte believes so as per its prospective study. According to a statement by Duncan Stewart, director of Deloitte Research Canada, there are four or five years, the only devices used here will be laptops. Today, there are mostly smartphones and tablet PCs. More than half of the hardware sold in 2011 will be a mobile device such as a smartphone or a tablet computer. This development should result in an increase of 60% of the applications market, which will reach $10 billion in sales.
The survey reveals that the average revenue per user (ARPU) on a social networking website is 4 dollars and evaluates the advertising market of social media at 4 billion this year, less than 1% of the total ad spending. Facebook and its peers will benefit from comfortable margins compared to other media. Deloitte predicts that smartphone sales will add 375 million handsets in 2011 and that the tablet market will reach 50 million units.
