Tablet sales in Asia to reach 21 million this year: IDC

Reported sales in Q1 are already strong, at 1.9 million tablet units sold in Asia, compared with declining sales elsewhere in the world. According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, tablet shipments worldwide dropped 28 per cent in the first quarter of 2011 to 7.2 million units.

However, instead of concluding that the tablet bubble had burst, IDC revised its shipment forecast for 2011 upwards from 50.4 million units to 53.5 million units. It expects this growth to be driven primarily by sales of the Apple iPad 2 which, in the first weekend it was launched, sold a million units in the US alone. The iPad 2 was launched on 11 March in the US and on 25 March internationally. However, first-quarter performance was lower than expected, due to supply-chain hiccups, IDC has advised.

The drop in tablet demand during the first quarter may also have been affected by the strong year-end quarter just before, said IDC.

"Like the PC market, tablets had a bit of a challenging quarter in Q1, as concerns about general macroeconomic issues and the post-holiday letdown took a toll on demand," said Bob O'Donnell, IDC vice-president, clients and displays. "We expect the rest of the year to be much stronger."

The report also found that while mobile phone vendors, such as Samsung and Motorola, had found moderate success via distribution through telco carriers, many consumers were unwilling to sign up for the 3G/4G data plans the carriers required.

O'Donnell commented that vendors who continued to focus on the telco channel for distribution will face serious challenges.

Melissa Chau, research manager for client devices research at IDC Asia-Pacific commented that Apple would set the pace for this category over the next five years. Competitors should strive to differentate their products from the iPad if they wished to attain consumer loyalty, she said.

"In Asia, some of the demand for tablets may be driven by the education sector, such as the Thai government's recently announced plan to distribute 800,000 Android tablets to primary school students. There are certainly opportunities out there to keep driving media tablet growth," she added.