State of play: Android devices double, tablet sales soar, and PCs tumble

Total number of devices sold rises by 5.9 per cent from 2012 to 2013

Monkey see, monkey iPad 2: Cats are able to play with tablet devices (AP)

The latest report from industry analysts Gartner has revealed a number of distinct trends in the worldwide devices market (combining sales of mobiles, tablets, and PCs). Whilst there has been an overall growth in devices sold boosted by increased tablet sales, the popularity of traditional PCs continue to fall.

The report also measures the growth of operating systems, with Android seeing the largest improvements, followed by smaller growth from iOS/MacOS and Windows, with the latter still retaining a slight edge in numbers over Apple, whilst falling behind in rates of growth.

The total number of devices sold worldwide is project to reach just under 2.35 billion units by 2013, a total rise of 5.9 per cent. Traditional PC sales (desk-based and notebooks) will fall by 10.6 per cent from 2012 with growth in the sector supplied by tablets (up 67.9 per cent), mobiles (growing 4.3 per cent) and ultramobiles (an increase of 107 per cent).

See below for a full break-down in numbers:

Worldwide Devices Shipments by Segment (Thousands of Units)

Device Type	2012	2013	2014
PC (Desk-Based and Notebook)	341,273	305,178	289,239
Ultramobile	9,787	20,301	39,824
Tablet	120,203	201,825	276,178
Mobile Phone	1,746,177	1,821,193	1901,188
Total	2,217,440	2,348,497	2,506,429

Source: Gartner (June 2013)

The increasing demand for ultramobiles (which Gartner defines as “thin and light clamshell designs” including slates, hybrids, Chromebooks and the MacBook Air) is relatively small in volume but will help vendors increase average selling prices and margins.

The tablet market is also expected to diversify, with sales of premium products taking a dip as consumers either trade down to basic tablets (such as the iPad Mini) or up, purchasing high-priced ultramobiles instead.

In terms of operating systems, Android devices are expected to double from 505,509 sold in 2012 to 1,061,270 in 2014. Over the same time period Windows is expected to see a slight increase from 346,464 to 378,142 whilst Apple achieves some more significant growth, adding more than 100 million devices to a project total of 254,849 in 2014.

“Although the numbers seem to paint a clear picture of who the winner will be when it comes to operating systems (OS) in the device market (see Table 2), the reality is that today ecosystem owners are challenged in having the same relevance in all segments,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

“Apple is currently the more homogeneous presence across all device segments, while 90 per cent of Android sales are currently in the mobile phone market and 85 per cent of Microsoft sales are in the PC market.”

See below for a full break-down of operating system sales:

Worldwide Devices Shipments by Operating System (Thousands of Units)

Operating System	2012	2013	2014
Android	505,509	866,781	1,061,270
Windows	346,464	339,545	378,142
iOS/MacOS	212,878	296,356	354,849
RIM	34,584	25,224	22,291
Others	1,118,004	820,592	689,877
Total	2,217,440	2,348,497	2,506,429

Source: Gartner (June 2013)