The Market for Used Phones, Tablets, and PCs Continues to Expand

The secondary market for devices (used and refurbished products) continues to grow, driven by a wide range of factors including increasing high-priced flagship products, changes in financing models, and hardware vendor’s increasing focus on adjacencies such as services and accessories. Another factor that will push growth of used markets outside of smartphones is the rise … Continue reading The Market for Used Phones, Tablets, and PCs Continues to Expand

Even Millennials Don’t Know What to Do with Tablets

This week marks the 7th anniversary of the iPad’s availability on the market. The Verge reminds us of their initial take on the product. There were two main stands iPad reviewers took back in 2010. Some industry watchers thought the iPad could become the next computing platform — at least for some people. Others believed … Continue reading Even Millennials Don’t Know What to Do with Tablets

Lenovo’s Yogabook could be the Perfect Design for Future Tablets and Smartphones

Over the Christmas holidays, I began testing a new product from Lenovo call the Yoga Book. I tested both the Android and Windows OS version and, while testing these two-sided tablets, I began to realize this design is probably one of the most innovative mobile products I have seen in the past 5 years. Here … Continue reading Lenovo’s Yogabook could be the Perfect Design for Future Tablets and Smartphones

Smartwatches Need to Learn from Tablets’ Mistakes

On Monday, IDC released its http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41996116″>third quarter market share update for wearables and it was not pretty. While overall shipments grew marginally year on year, reaching 23 million, 85% of sales remained in the more aggressively priced fitness bands. The third quarter results need to account for the launch date of Apple Watch Series 2 … Continue reading Smartwatches Need to Learn from Tablets’ Mistakes

Tablets in the Enterprise: Do Windows or Android Stand a Chance?

Are tablets really taking hold in the enterprise? Are they replacements for a PC or supplemental? While tablet sales have been shrinking of late, does this mean companies are no longer enamored with deploying them? Finally, for those looking at tablets, has Apple already won or do Microsoft (Windows) and Google (Android) still have hope? … Continue reading Tablets in the Enterprise: Do Windows or Android Stand a Chance?

Analyzing Microsoft’s and Apple’s Approach to Tablets

With Windows 10 on the horizon and Apple’s latest iOS 9 which will bring the iPad into much closer competition with PCs, it is worth looking at how the two platform companies are approaching tablets. As outlined in this report, my thesis for tablets has always been it is the true mass market computer. The … Continue reading Analyzing Microsoft’s and Apple’s Approach to Tablets

Podcast: Tablets, Surface 3, Connected Cars

This week Bob O’Donnell, Ben Bajarin and Jan Dawson discuss the tablet market in light of the iPad’s 5th anniversary, Microsoft’s new Surface 3, and the opportunity for mobile OS vendors in connected cars. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. If you happen to use a podcast aggregator or want to add it to iTunes … Continue reading Podcast: Tablets, Surface 3, Connected Cars

How Will Windows 10 Impact PCs and Tablets?

Much has been written about Microsoft’s Windows 10 announcement overall, as well as their recent earnings. One key issue that I haven’t seen discussed in great detail, however, is the real-world impact that Windows 10 will have on the PC and tablet markets. From my perspective, Windows 10 will likely have a very positive impact … Continue reading How Will Windows 10 Impact PCs and Tablets?

Does Google Care About Android Tablets? Should They?

One of the nice features of Android is the operating system has built-in functions that allow smartphone apps to scale well to many different screen sizes. As Google can’t control the screen sizes their Android hardware partners create, they needed to make apps extensible to many different sizes. With tablets, however, this has been more of … Continue reading Does Google Care About Android Tablets? Should They?

Tablets, Notebooks and Desktops Are The New “Other”

I have been following personal computing since the 1970s (yes, I am ancient). I was introduced to computing categories in the following order: — First, there was the Desktop. The original Desktops were text input only. Then monitors were added. Then mouse input was added, which allowed Desktop computers to be user by a whole … Continue reading Tablets, Notebooks and Desktops Are The New “Other”

Counterpoint: Tablets Were Never Supposed To Be The Next Smartphone

I’m (supposed to be) on vacation this week, but I saw an article by Peter Bright of Ars Tecnica, that got my dander up: “Op-Ed: Tablets really are the new PCs; nobody needs to buy them any more.” Peter Bright’s article looks for trouble, finds it where it doesn’t exist, diagnoses it incorrectly, and applies … Continue reading Counterpoint: Tablets Were Never Supposed To Be The Next Smartphone

Why Has the Growth in Tablets Stalled?

When Apple released their Q1 earnings in late April, they reported sales of iPads were down substantially over last year’s same quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook stated part of the reason for a decline in iPad demand this year is, in Q1 of 2013, there was pent-up demand for the iPad mini and a backlog … Continue reading Why Has the Growth in Tablets Stalled?

Big Tablets and The Shift in Mobile Computing

I believe 2014 could be a big year for bigger tablets. The bulk of the tablets sold over the past few years have been tablets in the 7-8″ range. By our estimates the install base of tablets 9″ or larger is only 33%. Which highlights the point that most tablet sales over the past few … Continue reading Big Tablets and The Shift in Mobile Computing

Big Tablets Could be a Big Trend

There continues to be a lot of talk around tablets which are larger than the traditional 10″ screen sizes. Rumors have it that Apple is working on a larger iPad and that Samsung is as well. While I don’t think it makes sense for Apple to make a larger tablets, and Samsung will experiment with … Continue reading Big Tablets Could be a Big Trend

Low-Cost Tablets are the Netbooks of the Tablet Category

The tablet category is quickly becoming a tricky one to analyze. As in the early stages of any technology category we are seeing the tablet market segment or splinter into separate markets. While I like to point out how large the tablet category is, one can’t accurately analyze the tablet category without peeling back the … Continue reading Low-Cost Tablets are the Netbooks of the Tablet Category

The State of Tablets in 2013

Tablets represent one of the greatest opportunities to expand and enhance computing. However, it is a very mis-understood product. I want to share some statistics about tablets and then add some key points on the market as it stands today as well as a projected outlook for Q4 and beyond. 85% of tablets sales have … Continue reading The State of Tablets in 2013

Tablets and the Decline of TVs

Not long after the iPad came out I began to wonder just how much of an impact the iPad would have on the PC market. For 15 years, much of our research at Creative Strategies has looked closely at what we call the “screens of the digital lifestyle.” In the 1990’s it became clear that … Continue reading Tablets and the Decline of TVs

Tablets, Desktops, Laptops: How the Tools Fit My Life

With the endless arguments about tablets’ productivity or lack thereof, I decided to take a close look at the computing tools in my life. The result is a seemingly contradictory conclusion: We truly live in a post-PC era in which the traditional PC remains a vital player. I think my habits are fairly typical of … Continue reading Tablets, Desktops, Laptops: How the Tools Fit My Life

Tablets: The Future Of Education

“(O)ur share of tablets in education is 94%. I mean, it’s sort of unheard of. I’ve never seen a market share that high before. ~ Tim Cook Which Computing Form Factor Is Most Likely To Dominate Education? Phones? No way. Too small. Notebooks? Possible. They’re so much smaller and lighter these days. And they can … Continue reading Tablets: The Future Of Education

The State of Tablets

On the eve of Apple’s event–where we expect new iPad’s to be unveiled–I thought I would provide a high level view of the current state of the tablet market. While it may not be terribly obvious to many, the holiday quarter for tablets will easily be the most competitive yet. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX tablets … Continue reading The State of Tablets

Tablets, Phablets, and Phones: Microsoft’s Confusion Continues

An update to Windows Phone 8, due to begin rolling out soon, has some good news for fans of really big phones. Devices with 1920×1080 pixel displays will get an assortment of new user interface features, including the ability to display three columns of tiles on the home screen. The stated goal is to provide … Continue reading Tablets, Phablets, and Phones: Microsoft’s Confusion Continues

Tablets and TVs: The Battle for the Bridge

Long before the rise of PCs in the home, TV hosted what were the first mainstream consumer app platform. The “apps” came on plastic cartridges inserted into the Atari 2600, Intellivision and other early consoles. Indeed, we’re now seeing a renaissance in living room TV gaming coming via OUYA, GameStick, NVIDIA’s Shield, Valve’s Steam OS, … Continue reading Tablets and TVs: The Battle for the Bridge

Tablets, Seasonality, and Adoption Cycles

There is an interesting shift happening in the hardware release cycle of the computing industry. When the PC was the only game in town bi-annual release schedules were the norm. Now with the increased growth in smartphone and tablets, it looks as though the industry may be shifting to a much more seasonal release schedule. … Continue reading Tablets, Seasonality, and Adoption Cycles

Office for Tablets: Delay Could Be Death

The usually very well-informed Mary Jo Foley reports at ZDNet that we won’t see major improvement in Microsoft Office for tablets until next year, spring of 2014 for Windows RT and fall for the long-awaited iOS and Android versions. If true, this is big trouble for Microsoft’s cash-cow Office franchise. The huge threat is that … Continue reading Office for Tablets: Delay Could Be Death

Are the New Crop of Enterprise Tablets a Threat to Apple?

Over the last three years, Apple has reshaped many industries, including the smartphone, tablet, PC and even SOC industry.  One area of Apple success that was in Microsoft’s own backyard was enterprise tablets, where, according to Apple, 94 percent of the Fortune 500 is either testing or deploying iPads.  For a product that has only … Continue reading Are the New Crop of Enterprise Tablets a Threat to Apple?