Are Windows Tablets Finally Catching Up To The iPad?
Strategy Analytics predictions put Surface Pro 4 and fellow Windows devices taking Apple market share in years to come
The increasing growth in the number of Windows 10 devices has helped push Microsoft’s share of the tablet market to a new high.
Tablets powered by Microsoft’s Windows software are becoming more and more popular amongst both business and consumer markets, according to new data from analyst firm Strategy Analytics.
Its latest ‘Tablet Operating System Forecast’ report found that sales of Windows tablets were up 58 percent on 2014 for the first nine months of this year, with total shipments for 2015 predicted to hit 22 million.
That will give Microsoft a 10 percent share of the tablet market, compared to 22 percent for Apple and 68 percent for Android.
Growing
The firm also predicts that Microsoft’s market share is only going to keep on increasing, and is set to hit 18 percent by 2019, with Android on 59 percent, and Apple still on 23 percent.
These projections also estimate sales of Microsoft-powered slates hitting 49 million units, more than double this year’s estimate, as more low-cost, mass-market devices go on sale in the next few years.
Check out TechWeekEurope’s list of the top 10 tablets for businesses here!
The growing success of 2-in-1 devices alongside larger premium devices like the iPad Pro (pictured above) and Surface Pro 4 will also make it more appealing for many particularly in the enterprise market as more and more workers seek a PC replacement device.
“As the enterprise market becomes increasingly open to the wide scale deployment of Tablet platforms, Microsoft has a key advantage in that its operating systems are found on the vast majority of PC and servers within the enterprise, potentially providing a smoother integration of Tablets using the Windows OS into the enterprise,” said Peter King, Strategy Analytics research director.
“Most, if not all, major vendors will have high to premium tier Windows Tablet offerings by the end of 2016 to address prosumers and enterprise currently served by Microsoft’s Surface Pro line.”
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