According to ABI Research branded OEM tablet shipments will exceed 200 million with sales reaching $85 billion in 2014, even as global tablets decline by -30% during Q1 2014.
The year will also be something of a "watershed" for the tablet installed base, as active Android devices should surpass iOS for the first time.
"We have yet to reach the top of the tablet market and with many world regions just now starting to adopt, the best is yet to come.” the analyst says. "Intel aims to make a large splash during 2014 with a projected 40 million devices powered by its processors… [A] significant portion will come from smaller manufacturers in China and Taiwan developing next-generation Android tablets during H2 2014."
The analyst predicts 35% of 2014 shipments will go to China and India, with Chinese tablets for Chinese customers serving as a further influence in the white box (non-branded) tablet segment.
On the vendor front Apple will remain the leading brand of 2014, followed by Samsung in a situation similar to that seen in the mobile market-- ABI says the Apple-Samsung duopoly will make up to 70% of branded tablet shipments by year-end.
"Looking back over the past 3 years of the tablet boom, the leading vendor order has remained largely unchanged,” ABI concludes. “Lenovo is the most obvious standout as it has executed tablet strategy well both in China and abroad.”
