ABI Research tips tablet shipments to hit 200M in 2014

The tablet market around the world is booming right now with significant growth in the industry. The growth of tablet shipments and smartphones has come at the expense of the PC industry, which is seeing a significant downturn. New research looking at the tablet market from ABI Research has been published.

The research shows that tablet shipments for 2014 are expected to hit the 200 million mark. That number is a gain of 20% compared to the number of tablets sold in 2013. Last year the tablet industry overall shipped 166 million units globally.

2014 could be a big year for Intel in the tablet market tips ABI. The research firm says that if Intel is able to make good on its goal of shipping 40 million tablets using its processor tech, the chipmaker will suddenly become a big player in the market. Intel isn't traditionally a big force in the tablet market mainly due to its higher power consumption on average than competing hardware.

ABI is also predicting that in 2014 North America will account for less than 50% of all tablet shipments for the first time. The change is coming in part thanks to the efforts of major tablet makers to broaden into other markets.

SOURCE: ABI Research