The latest tablet market intelligence bulletin from ABI Research shows that the developed markets of North America, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific remain by far the dominant markets for tablet sales by revenue, expected to account between them for 97 percent of the $72 billion forecast to be spent on tablets in the first quarter of 2013.
Furthermore, the 39 million tablets shipped in the first quarter of 2013 come close to a record, according to ABI, only exceeded by the preceding fourth quarter of 2012.
“Three regions of the world are expected to yield 97% of tablet revenues in 2013,” said ABI senior practice director Jeff Orr. “North America is forecasted to claim nearly half of the estimated $72 billion expected to be spent this year on tablet devices. Western Europe and Asia-Pacific will also have their hands in the honey pot for a combined 50% of world tablet revenues, respectively.”
This level of underpenetration in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa, each of them accounting for just one percent of the $72 billion forecast, really is quite remarkable.
Tablets are no newcomers to Eastern European markets, for instance, and local brands are even beginning to make their own presence felt in these more cost-conscious markets, where their prices are often a fraction of even bargain netbooks.
What I think these figures really show, rather, is the huge and still growing appetite for tablets in developed economies. As previously cited, screen shipments are also growing hand over fist. Tablet penetration in the developed world, and its effect on publishing and media business models, looks like it’s still just getting into its stride.
