Microsoft may think there’s a market for people who want large tablets that can replace their laptops. But research firm IDC thinks that some people are using large phones in place of small tablets. IDC has revised its tablet shipment projections for 2014, suggesting that device makers will ship 254.4 million units this year. That’s down […]
Tag: idc
Apple, Allwinner dominate the tablet chip market
Samsung and Qualcomm may be big names in the smartphone processor space. But you know who sells more tablet chips than anyone else? Apple… but in second place is Allwinner, the Chinese manufacturer of low-cost ARM-based processors. Research firm IDC says Allwinner shipped over 18 million tablet chips in the 4th quarter of 2013, according […]
IDC: 1 billion smartphones shipped in 2013, most running Android
Remember when BlackBerry and Palm dominated the fledgling smartphone market? Things have changed a lot in the past decade. Research firm IDC reports that a billion smartphones were shipped in 2013, and 80 percent of them were running Google’s Android operating system. Apple’s iPhones come in second at just over 15 percent, and everyone else […]
Report: The tablet market isn’t growing like it used to
More than 217 million tablets were shipped around the world in 2013, which is a more than 50 percent jump from 2012, when an estimated 144 million tablets were shipped. But while you might think that means the market for tablets is still growing like crazy, research firm IDC says tablet growth is actually slowing. According […]
Reports: PC sales decline by 10% but Chromebooks climb 112%
There’s good news and bad news for PC makers in the latest reports from research firms IDC, Gartner, and NPD. The bad news is that most reports suggest PC sales in 2013 were down about 10 percent from the previous year, with 4th quarter/holiday shipments down about 6 percent from 2013. The good news is that’s […]
Lilbits (8-12-2013): The uncertain future of BlackBerry
There was a time when BlackBerry devices dominated the smartphone space. But the past few years have been tough for the company, with growing competition from Apple’s iPhone and an army of Android devices. BlackBerry’s brief foray into the tablet space wasn’t exactly a home run either. So what’s a struggling company to do? In […]
IDC predicts tablet shipments to surpass laptops by 2014
There are some things that are easier to do with a laptop than a tablet – like typing at 100 words per minutes while balancing your device on your lap. But that hasn’t stopped tablets from selling like hotcakes. Analysts at research firm IDC say 128 million tablets were shipped in 2012, representing a 78 […]
VIA ships fewer x86 processors in 2011, holds onto distant 3rd place
VIA Technologies isn’t exactly a household name, but the Taiwanese company is the third largest maker of x86 processors for notebook, desktop, and server computers. But it’s a distant third place, with VIA capturing just about 0.1 percent of the market in the last quarter of 2011. Researchers at IDC have released their latest report on […]
Netbook sales may be leveling off — does it matter?
I’ve seen a number of reports over the last few months about how the Netbook segment of the computer industry is leveling off or even declining. The latest update comes from CNET, which reprots that Intel and researchers IDC are both suggesting that Intel Atom chip shipments are representing a smaller portion of overall microchip […]
Netbooks may or may not be dying… but that doesn’t excuse misleading stats
The idea that netbooks represented a brand new category of computing device was always a bit shaky. And I’m not entirely certain that anyone aside from marketers ever believed it. The truth is that a netbook is just a small, cheap, and light weight laptop. That’s it. If you look at all the so-called netbooks […]