Technology and Tablets – What is Next?
THUNDER BAY – TECHNOLOGY- What is your next major technology purchase? The tablet market has been growing, but according to some experts has turned a little flat.
It is possible that many tablet users are waiting on the newest Apple Iphone to come out which will have a larger screen.
Apple Focuses Ipad Market users
Many industry experts are speculating that the new iphone from Apple will be a major big seller. According to trends in the United States, there are as many as twenty-five million iPhone users who are expected upgrade their phone over the next year.
Apple stated, “Our record June quarter revenue was fueled by strong sales of iPhone and Mac and the continued growth of revenue from the Apple ecosystem, driving our highest EPS growth rate in seven quarters,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are incredibly excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, as well as other new products and services that we can’t wait to introduce.”
“We generated $10.3 billion in cash flow from operations and returned over $8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the June quarter,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We have now taken action on over $74 billion of our $130 billion capital return program with six quarters remaining to its completion.”
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 fourth quarter:
- revenue between $37 billion and $40 billion
- gross margin between 37 percent and 38 percent
- operating expenses between $4.75 billion and $4.85 billion
- other income/(expense) of $250 million
- tax rate of 26.1 percent
Many people are moving toward smaller technology products, but often it seems the development of new products is coming so fast it is harder and harder to keep up.
That might be leading some consumers to wait it out.
The impact regardless is lowering sales.
Following a second consecutive quarter of softer than expected demand, International Data Corporation (IDC) has lowered its worldwide tablet plus 2-in-1 forecast for 2014 to 233.1 million units. The new Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker forecast represents a 6.5% year-over-year growth rate, which is well below the 12.1% growth rate previously forecast.
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Taking Aim at Marketplace
“When we look at the global picture, it would be easy to say that the tablet market is slowing down,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director for Tablets. “But, when we start digging into the regional dynamics, we realize that there is still a good appetite for this product category. While mature markets like North America and Western Europe will combine for flat unit growth in 2014, the remaining regional markets will generate 12% unit growth over the same period.”
IDC anticipates that price pressure on tablets with smaller screen sizes (less than 8 inches) and evolving tablet usage in emerging markets will fuel that unit growth. While average selling prices (ASPs) are expected to stabilize at US$373 in mature markets in 2014 due to the shift to larger screens and cellular-enabled tablets, ASPs in the rest of the world will decrease to US$302, representing an annual decline of 10%. As an illustration of evolving tablet usage, shipments of tablets featuring a built-in option of voice calling over cellular networks in the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) region reached 25% this quarter, representing annual growth of 60%. This trend suggests that end users in this region are looking for a single device that can meet their needs in terms of voice communication and media consumption, and for some that single device is a tablet and not a smartphone.”Driven primarily by small devices, we expect the rest of the world to account for the majority of shipments in the years to come,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst for the Worldwide Tablet Tracker. “But in terms of dollars spent, medium- to large-sized devices in North America and Western Europe will still produce significant revenues.”
