Global branded tablet PC shipments in the fourth quarter are not expected to see growth creating concerns among market watchers whether the tablet PC market has already reached saturation, but Digitimes Research senior analyst James Wang believes that the zero-growth in the fourth quarter is the joint affect of Japan's earthquake on March 11 and the global economic downturn, which should not become an obstacle that restrains the tablet PC market's growth in the future.

Since the global economy in 2012 will not be as bad as expected; demand for mobile devices is growing steadily; tablet PCs' performance/price ratio is rising; and Android tablet PC's hardware and software designs are improving, the four major drivers will help global branded tablet PC shipments reach 95.1 million units with a growth of 60% on year.

In the next three years, smartphone shipments will reach as high as one billion units, and taking smartphones as a base, tablet PC shipments in 2014 are estimated to reach 170 million units, a volume about 70% of the estimated total notebook shipments.

Combined shipments of tablet PCs and notebook (including netbook), a new category named mobile computing devices, will enjoy a CAGR of 17.3% from 2011-2014.

Source: Digitimes Research, November 2011