Analyst: We’ll See More Than 900 Million Tablets by 2017

If you don’t own a tablet yet, you probably will soon.

That’s the prediction from analysts at research firm Forrester, who estimate 6 out of 10 online consumers in North America will own a tablet by the year 2017. Worldwide, Forrester estimates sales of tablets will reach 381 million units in 2017, with a global installed base of 905 million units.

Companies will continue to ramp up their adoption of tablets in the workplace, Forrester says. Some 18 percent of all tablets bought by 2017 will be used exclusively for work.

“Specific classes of workers will be issued tablets,” Forrester analyst JP Gownder wrote. “Organizations show a clear hierarchy of roles—that is, classes of workers to whom they are willing to give company-issued tablets. Tablets will move beyond executives and traveling salespeople to other roles in coming years.”

Collaboration tablet apps are big now, and will continue to grow, Forrester predicts. The analysts said multiuser tabletop devices and multi-tablet collaboration apps will “drive the next wave of adoption” among enterprise companies.

Successful devices (for example, cell phones and DVD players) experience a period of intense growth before crossing the threshold into mainstream adoption, which Forrester defines as more than 50 percent consumer adoption.

Tablets will achieve mainstream adoption by 2017 in North America, Singapore, South Korea and other tech-forward countries. Europe and the rest of the world will continue to lag several years behind.

Forrester estimates 42 percent of online European consumers will own a tablet by 2017. Globally, just 29 percent of online consumers will own a tablet.

Consumers are increasingly getting choosy about their tablets. Today, there are two major enterprise tablet models: Bring Your Own Device and company-issued. Forrester says a third model is emerging, where workers will opt to split the cost of a tablet with their employer, so they can choose the exact model and feature set they want.

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