Demand for cellular enabled Tablets has been disappointing. During the boom years, people bought slates mainly to use at home and almost without exception used Wi-Fi rather than cellular. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi on the go does not always provide the ideal solution. Some mobile-first vendors are benefitting from connected tablet strategies and some carriers are getting creative in their approaches to tablets once again.
We believe that vendors and operators can still take steps to encourage greater replacement rates, higher cellular attach rates, and more content consumption. By understanding what motivates a consumer to delay device replacement or choose a different type of computing device over a tablet, vendors can target key consumer concerns with differentiated products and services. With a clear grasp of pain points users feel without true mobility and in accessing valuable video and gaming content, carriers and content distributors can tap into a vast market of opportunity waiting to be found, especially as embedded SIM (eSIM) becomes a real option in 2018 with Windows tablets running ARM processors, and 5G networks become available at the end of the decade.
This report forecasts global Tablet shipments and installed base by connectivity (Wi-Fi, 3G, LTE, 5G) and by SIM (non-SIM, Traditional SIM, and embedded SIM / eSIM) in the 6 major regions of North America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe, and Africa & Middle East as well as the global total for the years 2010 to 2022. This report is published during Q1 2018, following actual Q4 2017 results. This report updates and supersedes the Tablet Connectivity Shipment and Installed Base Forecast 2010-2021: Q4 17 Update report published in November 2017.