Worldwide media tablet shipments into sales channels fell by 28% on a sequential basis in the first calendar quarter of 2011 to 7.2 million units worldwide, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker.
However, shipment forecast for 2011 has been raised by IDC to 53.5 million units from its previous projection of 50.4 million units.
For the first quarter, the burgeoning media tablet market has a notable impact due to more mature consumer electronics and computing categories, suggesting that demand for media tablets may not match up with recent media hype suggests.
The eReader market underwent a sequential decline in shipments to 3.3 million units as the post-holiday season proved to be challenging for that category.
However, eReaders experienced 105% year-over-year growth as the devices continue to grow in overall popularity, particularly with the introduction of color devices, such as Barnes & Noble’s Color Nook, the IDC tracker said.
Apple’s iPad and the recently introduced iPad 2 continue to dominate the media tablet market, though the shipments for the quarter were well below expectations. Products of other vendors are finding difficult to make their presence visible in this market.
Media tablets from mobile phone vendors, such as Samsung and Motorola who have focused their distribution through the telco carriers, found moderate success, but sales were largely stymied by many consumers’ unwillingness to sign up for the 3G/4G data plans that the carriers typically require along with these devices.
Android-based devices grew to 34% of the total, a share increase of 8.2 points over the previous quarter, the tracker said.
For eBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Color Nook helped the company to take the lead in the eReader market for the first time, followed by Amazon’s Kindle, but the lack of a color offering has clearly impacted the company’s previous dominance in the eReader market.
IDC forecasts the worldwide eReader market shipments will increase by 24% to 16.2 million units in 2011, compared to 2010.
IDC vice president of Clients and Displays Bob O’Donnell said like the PC market, Media 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.
"We expect the rest of the year to be much stronger, but we believe vendors who continue to focus on the telco channel for distribution will face serious challenges," O’Donnell said.
IDC research analyst Jennifer Song said although media tablet sales were not as high as expected in 1Q11 due to slower consumer demand, overall economic conditions, and supply-chain constraints, they believe with the entrance of competitive new devices in second half of 2011, the market will sell close to 53 million units for the year and continue to grow long-term.
