Phablet Impact on PC Sales

Apple iPhone 6 and 6s users are recent converts to the latest growth trend in smart phones, large screens at 5.5″ in size and aiming even higher each year. I’ve owned a 5.5″ smart phone from Samsung for some 3 years now, so have immensely enjoyed the larger screen size to get my daily work done with: web browsing, LinkedIn reading, Google+ browsing, Tweeting, email, Facebook, messaging, writing notes, taking photos, sharing docs on Google Drive, etc. I’ve also owned two generations of the Apple iPad and that device allows me to attend an event like DAC and take notes all day long without having to charge the battery, typing away on the Logitech keyboard. I haven’t owned a desktop computer for about 10 years now, instead using a MacBook Pro laptop because of it’s portability and generous 17″ display.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

The research company IC Insights just published an info-packed bulletin titled, “Large-Screen Smartphones Erode Total Personal Computing Unit Growth“. Starting in 2010 we saw tablet devices enter the market and drive new growth, and by 2013 the volume of tablets shipped was larger than notebooks. Something unexpected happened in 2014 because tablet growth slowed way down as the larger-sized smart phones became more popular. Take a look at the info-graphic for total personal computing unit growth from the year 2000 through 2018:

The trend in 2015 is that both PC and tablet IC sales are declining, with PC IC sales looking like a $57.7B market (-3%) from a $59.4B market in 2014 (+5%). IC sales for tablets could go down 5% this year to $16.6B. One segment seeing continued growth is ICs for Internet and cloud computing laptops like the Chromebook with an increase of 38% to $931M. Here’s the table showing the IC market for personal computing systems:

These numbers from IC Insights are confirmed by companies like Apple that have seen decreases in sales of the iPad and iPad Mini devices, so one way to counter that trend is to introduce new products like the larger iPad Pro with a 12.9″ display, available in November this year.

Apple iPad Pro

Apple was smart to add a keyboard and optional stylus for this device, as the keyboard makes this device a replacement for some notebooks and the stylus is great for graphic artists and anyone that loves handwriting or painting.

For the complete report, visit IC Insights.