Tablets are set to outsell both PCs and notebooks next year. Market research firm Canalys is predicting that 285 million tablets will ship next year, more than the 192 million notebooks that the firm is projecting, and far ahead of PC shipments of 98 million units. In 2014, combined tablet, notebook and PC shipments are projected to total 575 million units, with tablet shipments making up just under half of the total.
Makers of notebooks are scrambling to stay relevant by integrating touchscreens. According to NPD, 11% of all notebooks shipped this year will be touchscreen models. The firm says that Asus dominates this market with 26.3% of the market for notebook PCs with touchscreens. Lenovo, Acer, Hewlett-Packard and Sony are also offering touchscreen notebooks.
Apple has said it will not offer touchscreens on its notebooks. CEO Tim Cook has said that combining the Mac with a touchscreen would involve so many trade offs that the end result would not “please anyone.” He also compared devices that try to combine tablet and notebook functionality to refrigerators with toasters attached.
Canalys projects that Apple will have just 30% of the tablet market next year, versus 65% for Google’s Android and 5% for Microsoft’s Windows. Microsoft will be a key player to watch in this space. Like Apple, the company wants to be a major provider of both tablets and notebook PCs but it has not officially ruled out the possibility of combining the two. Its Surface tablets are sold with a keyboard option that enables users to turn the tablet into a mini-notebook.
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