iPad and Apple App store growth trends
iPad is expected to take lead in the tablet market
Strong consumer demand for Apple’s iPad is expected to trigger rapid growth across the burgeoning tablet sector, with overall unit sales expected to exceed 200 million within four years. Worldwide media tablet sales touched 19.4 million units in 2010, where Apple iPad is likely to drive much of the growth (sold more than 3 million between April and June). In 2011, the volume of sales is expected to reach 54.8 million units (181% compared to 2010), and in 2014 it will exceed 208 million units.
At that time, the main factor will be price cuts on them and the improvement of services provided by telecom operators for users of Tablets. However, as prices come down, the appeal of the tablet will spread. The other potential area of growth could be in the business segment, where companies are likely to start using the iPad as a sales or marketing tool.
Apple iPad has also influenced consumer towards looking up to tablet as an attractive secondary device to a PC. Hence, these trends of the device are likely to help propel tablet market sales in future. Spurred on by Apple’s success in the tablet category, groups such as Research in Motion has alreadylaunched , Cisco, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and ZTE are now playing catch-up with plans to launch their own rival devices.
App marketplace is likely to drive growth for iPhone in the near future
Apple App Store has boasted 300,000 applications for its iOS platform, touting the growth as a significant competitive advantage in its battle with Google and Research In Motion. The success of the App Store is attributable to a sort of positive feedback loop among developers and users.
Developer’s apps creation are giving users a Smartphone platform that is capable of almost limitless functions and the new application in iPhones are expected to attract the growing Smartphone user base and drive its growth in future. Apple, the two largest categories are a virtual tie between book apps and games that play into the iPhone’s advantages of a large touchscreen and fast graphics.
More than 206,000 of the apps on the iPhone store cost money, compared to just under 94,000 free apps. That’s significantly different than the Android Market, of which around half of downloads don’t cost anything. These numbers will only continue to rise as more and more people expect profitability from the iPhone platform, and as the installed base of the iPhone market grows as well.
Guest Post by Rashi Saxena, Rashi is Senior Research Analyst at CrossTab.
