Tablet Sales In Australia Are Down

Research firm Telsyte says that 1.8 million tablets sold in Australia in the first half of the year. That’s a large number, but it’s also down 28 per cent on the same period last year. What’s happening?

Tablets picture from Shutterstock

We’ve seen other evidence of lowering interest in tablets, including flatter sales for iPads and fewer of them shifting at JB Hi-Fi. Telsyte cites one of the most commonly-heard reasons: people don’t want to upgrade their tablets if they’re doing a satisfactory job. “A tablet upgrade cycle might not commence until current devices become more readily obsolete, either in terms of computational capability, operating system, application interoperability, graphics or connectivity,” Telsyte MD Foad Fadaghi said.

That rapid change in habits highlights the challenges in building a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy around a single device — preferences can often change faster than you can build a policy. There are now 10.8 million people using tablets, but they apparently don’t see an urgent need to upgrade. The most popular model is the iPad 2.

During the first half of the year, Android tablets outsold Apple’s iPad for the first time, though only narrowly. Android holds 47 per cent of the market, Apple 46 per cent and Windows accounts for 7 per cent. That may not last, according to Fadaghi: “Apple should have a strong second half if it can bring upgraded models to market and benefit from a halo effect created by the iPhone 6 launch.”


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