Tablet shipments may have dropped 28 percent in Q1 2011 over Q4 2010 but IDC expects that sales will bounce back. In fact, it expects device shipments to now reach 53.5 million units, an increase over its initial estimate of 50.4 million.
“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,” said Bob O’Donnell, IDC Vice President, Clients and Displays. “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.”
In Q1, Apple’s sales fell short of market expectations mostly due to overall economic conditions and supply chain challenges. Competing manufacturers that opted to focus their distribution through wireless carriers also found only “moderate success” as customers were largely unwilling to sign up for the data plans required with the devices (a trend expected to continue for the rest of the year). Despite the gloomy news, Google saw Android’s market share increase by 8.2 points as Android-powered tablets accounted for 34 percent of Q1 shipments.
IDC also reported that Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color is now the best selling e-reader with the Amazon Kindle falling to second place.