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.”
Comments
9 responses to “Tablet Sales In Australia Are Down”
Wouldn’t this mainly have to do with the fact that the tablet industry is really only 4 years old? So for the first few years there is still a lot of people to convince that they need a tablet, but eventually the market will get saturated, and only then will it become a question of how often people upgrade. So quick growth at first, and then a slowed, steady rate of sale after that?
You don’t need a lot of processing power to cruise the net. But more importantly I think, is the convenience of a keyboard on a small touch device. It’s just so much more convenient than typing on a tablet screen..!
Not surprising
When everyone in your home has a tablet, why would you buy more?
For the pets? One to put in the freezer?
What do people expect to do on a tablet that can’t be currently done?
I see dockable tablets like the T100 and surface getting more popular for people who need to get actual work done, not just play with toys like flappy bird
All here appear to have better analysis skills than those economists or ‘experts’ 😉
This is true in my case. I still have a first gen Nexus 7 and its serving me perfectly fine. Not intending on upgrading for at least another year.
I got an iPad but found that I wanted to do more things at the same time and save stuff. Can’t do crap with ipad. No actual gps so if you don’t have 3g coverage you stuffed. external gps won’t connect unless is apple approved type, not taking chances on $200 extra, it might not work anyway. I finally found a use for it as a babysitter and even that is hard as it only keeps ’em occupied for 30min max. Got myself a little 13″ laptop and other than battery being 3hour its serves me well. I can even stick a dvd in it to watch if I should desire it. Got plenty of usb’s and can stick my SD to get photos off. None of that with the ipad. Though ipad big positive is, its a new gizmo for creative people…. HUH, I made a funny.
Unlike phones, tablet screens have been hovering around the same sizes, and have almost the same functionality as the first generations did. It’s pretty hard for the new models to differentiate from the old ones.
We recently considered upgrading the work ipad 2’s due to age, but nobody could think of a serious reason to. The ipad air is lighter and has a higher-res screen, but it’s just running the same apps marginally faster. We’re still getting over a full day out of the battery and have had zero damaged units, which is amazing considering how the staff usually treat laptops and phones.
Sales are down because everybody already has one.
In most cases, tablets aren’t really considered ‘essential’ devices, unlike mobile phones and laptops. So, there is no clear need or urgency to upgrade, and for many the novelty has worn off.